Award-winning international playwright Goodenough Mashego has called upon Please Call Me millionaire Nkosana Makate to capitalise on the one asset he truly owns — his story — and turn it into millions of dollars.
Mashego is not a financial advisor, but a Mpumalanga-born filmmaker, book critic, and dramatist whose play The Last Show was staged just 20 km from Hollywood at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble in Los Angeles after beating 198 global contestants in the Saving Endangered Species International Playwriting Prize.
He also adjudicates the South African Literary Awards.
Rolling in the lolly
In his latest episode of the A South African Perspective (ASAP) podcast on YouTube, Mashego said Makate’s journey from a junior Vodacom employee to a household name was compelling enough for Hollywood producers to buy at a premium. “Makate earned the right to be associated with perseverance. He is a man that epitomises faith. I’m glad the brother got his settlement. I’ve always argued that Makate should have settled a long time ago,” he said.
“What Makate got can be multiplied — not through these stupid investments involving banks. No. The biggest asset Makate has now is his story. It’s his film. A Netflix original. The biggest asset that Makate sits on right now are his film rights.”
Rising through the ranks
Makate joined Vodacom in 1995 as a trainee accountant while completing his studies, working long hours to balance his dreams and duties. It was during those early days that he came up with the “Please Call Me” idea — a simple concept that would later revolutionise mobile communication across Africa.
Mashego said reports suggest Makate could have settled for about R48 million, excluding legal fees Vodacom is believed to have covered, marking the end of a 17-year legal war over the Please Call Me invention.
The case, which began in 2008, ended this month when Vodacom and Makate reached an out-of-court settlement after years of courtroom battles that stretched from the High Court to the Constitutional Court and back to the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Film rights
“If you can have a story about The Wolf of Wall Street or the 2008 financial crash, those people got a cut from the film because it’s their original story,” Mashego said. “If he got R48 million, if I was him I’d sell the film rights for R50 million to whoever wants to make the film.”
The Wolf of Wall Street grossed $407 million (R7.5 billion) worldwide, while The Social Network, based on Facebook’s rise, made $224 million (R4.4 billion). Mashego believes Makate’s David-and-Goliath story could also become a global hit.
“He can become an executive producer. He sells the film rights for R50 million and puts R25 million into production. It becomes a Netflix original — and he makes millions from streaming,” Mashego said.
