MELAMINA THE QUEEN

CHAPTER 20

KUHLEKONKE ZULU

“Where are we with the new app? What is the feedback from our betas?” I ask my employees and Ruvi clears her throat.
“They hate it. The feedback shows that it contains a lot of bugs and it always crashes the second time you open it. The ads are also not making things easier. There are some features that they don’t like. I have compiled all the data you need on their testing and I sent it to you yesterday.” I nod.

My interns were tasked to come up with a new music app much like iTunes and Spotify. Where you can access new music at a low price and the app must have a data saver feature which is the primary feature that is ought to attract many customers. This was just the first app. We still have three more to go since we have four interns in the app development this year. I am not mad about the glitches and bad feedback from betas. As developers, we all started somewhere before we could have apps with zero glitches and that hardly crashes. Even WhatsApp crashes, so failure is acceptable in our industry as long as we can learn from our mistakes and try to minimize the faults.

I nod at Ruvi and my team. “Compile some notes on what Evelyn needs in order to minimize the faults in her app. Try helping her perfect it and don’t give up on her yet. Ruvi, she is your pet project.” Ruvi groans and the others laugh. Evelyn is such a lovely girl. She is just too enthusiastic and positive. She is always bubbly and smiley. Sadly her kind nature doesn’t rub off my team. They are quite the broody bunch.

“Fine, Mr. Zulu. But I am going to be best friends with the girl.” She says, fixing her glasses and I just chuckle.
“What are the updates on the DCC app and website?” my wife’s company had a website but it recently crashed, wiping all data in it. So her tech team approached us for a new website and also an app which will have the same features as the website but more friendly and easily accessible. I don’t wanna be involved in the project but it doesn’t kill to ask for updates.

“We are almost done with everything, sir. All that’s left is to finalise everything and send it to our betas before sending it to the company for a trial run.” Funani responds and I nod. That’s good to know.

They update me on a few other projects since I haven’t been to the office for a while now due to family drama. By the time we conclude the meeting, I am worn out and hungry. I head to my office and ask Namuhla to order lunch for me. I wanna call my wife and check up on her but I don’t want to seem too clingy or seem as if I am being a nuisance. Truth is I am still worried about the whole Manuel thing. The last time I saw her that traumatized was after she killed Lee’s ex. So I am worried and I have every reason to be. The door to my office opens and Namuhla steps in looking nervous.

“Sir, your father in law is here to see you.” Ndosi omkhulu is here? Fuck. I wasn’t expecting this but I shouldn’t be surprised. In fact he came later than I expected. With all the drama that’s been happening in our lives, I thought he was going to corner me last month and strangle me.

“Let him in.” she nods and opens the door wide. Ndosi walks in wearing an impeccable three piece beige suit and a white shirt with his usual Fedora hat with a feather. I quickly stand and move around the desk to shake his hand. “Dubandlela.” He looks at my hand for a moment before shaking it. He squeezes my hand a bit and then let go.

“Mageba. How is everything?” he asks as he makes himself comfortable on the couch that his daughter has claimed as hers. I sit on the one seater next to him and clear my throat.
“Good. I can’t complain since I was blessed with a beautiful wife and a crazy bunch of kids.”
He chuckles. “How about you drop my grandkids off at my house Saturday morning and fetch them later? I miss them but I don’t want them sleeping at my house and disturbing my quality time with my wife.” I laugh.