Please Call Me inventor Nkosana Makate cancelled an agreement with the backers who funded his legal fees in his challenge against Vodacom so that he could keep the entire payout for himself.

This was claimed on Tuesday by one of his backers‚ Christiaan Schoeman‚ after the North Gauteng High Court ruled that 50% of Makate’s payout be kept in a trust of his attorneys’ account.

On Tuesday Schoeman and his company Raining Men filed an urgent application to interdict and restrain Makate’s lawyers from representing him in the negotiations that were ordered by the Constitutional Court in April.

The Constitutional Court ordered Vodacom to commence negotiations with Makate to determine a reasonable compensation payable to him in terms of an agreement Makate entered into with the company’s then director of product development.

 Schoeman claims that he and his company Raining Men paid for Makate’s legal fees when he took the cellular phone giant to court for using his ‘please call me’ idea without compensating him as per an oral agreement he had reached with the company’s director of product development.

Makate‚ however‚ claims that Schoeman had only paid R2.4million for his legal fees.

He said he agreed to a reduced 53% cut of any settlement from Vodacom‚ but Schoeman failed to deliver on his promises.

The former Vodacom employee said he cancelled their agreement in January 2015 and did not accept Schoeman’s proposal for new funding.

Speaking after the North Gauteng High Court postponed his application‚ Schoeman said: “Mr Makate’s legal fees were funded by myself and other funders.

 “He then cancelled the agreement so he could take all for himself.

“We have successfully today [Tuesday] obtained an order that 50% of the money will be held back…‚” Schoeman said.

An arbitration date is yet to be set down to resolve the dispute between Schoeman and Makate.