I wish I could say that I’m the only one still in school. As you’ve read by now, all my friends are now adults rather than being students. I thought I’d hold it down and be the one to represent us all, see us to graduation as a full time student, but I’m just too fertile and my husband won’t keep his hands off me. 

Mmaneo gave birth to a healthy and bouncy baby boy. We were on holiday together – us the couples – thinking she had another two weeks. It was a baby moon basically. Then the hun went into labour. Molise delivered his nephew, father of the baby fainted, then I had to give up my hand for Mmaneo to hold onto while she pushed life into this world. But it was beautiful. We drove to a hospital immediately – the closest one to the resort that we were at – but everything was incredible. While at the hospital, I got sick and we found that I’m also baking. Molise has been excited since that day. 

Our lodge in Maja-Perre is done. So with Mmaneo on maternity leave, I’ve stepped up and had to be more hands-on, which upsets Molise all the time. He doesn’t understand why his brothers need me to be this hands-on when we actually pay them a salary. Plus, I should be relaxing and enjoying my pregnancy. My two pregnancies with Phupho and Lapa were traumatic. My pregnancy journeys with both of them were lonely, and the deliveries were both incredibly difficult. I think Molise just wants this one to be a good journey. He wants me to enjoy this pregnancy because it is definitely my last one. I’m not popping more kids after this. This kid will make it four babies. She’s a girl. So I’ll have my two girls and my two boys. I am done! This is what has had me occupied that resorted to me doing my degree part time. But Ruri has hired tutors to do all our tutorials for us, so the only thing we all do is tests and exams. So every moment I get to myself, I study. 

Molise and I are watching a movie in our bedroom right now, cuddled in each other. Our door is open, so our kids walk in and out as they wish. 

Lapa walks in. 

“Papa, can I go play? My friends are having a rugby game. I won’t play a dangerous position today”, he says to his father.

I’m actually going to choke this child. 

Does he have any idea how stressed we were the last time he went to play rugby and ended up in surgery?! 

“Uyasangana wena neh”, I’m the one who replies to him. 

“I’m asking dad”, he says to me. And he’s asking dad because he knows I would have beat him up for asking me nonsense. 

“And I’m responding! And I’m telling you that you are not allowed to leave this house!” I say.

“I’m a kid. I need to play outdoors!” He tells me. 

He has answers for everything! 

“We have a perfect garden here. Play outside with toys that won’t send you to an ICU.” I say.

“THIS IS UNFAIR!” Now he’s losing his temper.

“I don’t care! There’s no fair and unfair here! You are not going there!” I say.

“Dad, mom is being unfair. Molemo doesn’t have time for me because he’s studying and has to pass exams otherwise mom is going to take his phone away. Phupho won’t play with me because she says I’m annoying. Now what must I do?” This child can complain hey.

“I’ll play with you. What do you want to play?” I say, rolling out of bed.

“No, you’ll hurt my sister. Dad, you can play with me. You are not baking a baby”, he says.

Mxm.

Molise actually laughs so hard. 

“Okay, let’s go. Mom can come and hang out with us”, Molise says.

We both get out of the bed and head to our garden. 

My parents went back to Diepkloof with my sister. That one and her scandals! My mom brought me up to speed because she was not willing to share information. 

Her husband kicked her out of the house and stripped her off everything. She managed to steal money from him then get transport to reach my parents at my house. When they had to leave, my sister didn’t want to leave. My dad told her that my husband doesn’t need the stress. So she left with my parents. Her lover – the husband’s son – took his children (which my sister gave birth to) and disappeared. We all have no idea where they are, and my sister doesn’t seem bothered. She keeps saying that at the end of the day, he will not kill his own children. So I don’t know what she’s going to do. She thought she was being funny when she told Molise that she will happily be his second wife. I hit her. We actually got into a physical fight. She must be mad. And I don’t trust her, she would try her luck. 

Molise now is always uncomfortable around her. 

Good! 

When we get to the garden, Molemo and Phupho join us. I can’t believe I’m raising a teenager, a pre-teen, a toddler and I’m pregnant. Yoh! I’m not even thirty. 

Phupho now wants to take over the plans – after she told my son that he’s annoying by the way – and shows us a TikTok video with some game she wants to play.

“How do you have TikTok? You don’t even have a phone!” Me.

“Molemo allows me to use his phone for one hour everyday. So I watch TikTok. And my friends WhatsApp me on his phone”, she explains. 

“Molemo, that’s very nice of you, papa. Thank you. And I hope it’s only one hour”, I say. 

“Only one hour, mama. I promise”, he says. 

We play for a good hour. I even get involved. The game is not that hard. It’s boys versus girls, and because the boys are more than the girls, we asked the nanny to join us. She had fun with us. 

Now, I get a call from Mmaneo. I call Molise to join us on the call because his brothers are the ones who are supposed to be onsite at the lodge, but there are problems everyday. I’ve even told Mmaneo to take maternity leave and I’ll sort it out, but the issues are too much. I even want to fire them. 

I’m glad she also pulled Molefe into this call. 

The HR company we hired to get us staff has concluded the recruitment and now we need to onboard the staff. Mmaneo says she wants to be part of it, so we will take the nannies and go deal with it ourselves. 

Mapho asked me to consider hiring unemployed people locally. Then the royal house pays us a monthly fee to secure a place for the locals in case of a natural disaster. So our place has proper drainage systems to survive floods, and we had environmentalists come in and add things we didn’t. 

With this, we got a tender to do the same thing in Tloung, Koena and Taung. So these are in progress and the idea is to have the little Maphosa brothers manage one each at some point, and not manage one establishment together. I love that Mapho looks out for us like this, but we also don’t want to drop the ball. We want her to shine as the kgosikgadi. 

This meeting sees Molefe and Molise SHITTING on the two younger ones. But I understand their concerns, they are not hospitality specialists and now, it’s a matter of skill. So we promise to drive down when the kids are done with exams and I’ll come down with the kids so we get ready for the grand opening. We are already fully booked for the grand opening, we cannot afford to drop the ball. We have family quarters on there where we stay when we go. It accommodates the kids and nannies safely. Molise and Molefe are not happy, but toughies are their shoes. 

…

A month later…

Exams are done and dusted. The girls and I were all so excited to write our final exams. Even Mapho came and wrote. She has tutors going to her and teaching her medicine. Reahile got her a classroom and lab at the royal house for all the lessons. That’s actually very sweet. 

We had a lunch together after the last paper because our lives have changed SO MUCH since we first met in first year. We were actually so emotional when we hooked up and caught up. We decided that we would have a friendmas this year on the 27th; we will bring the hubbies and the babies along. Then on the 28th, we will drive down for the opening for our lodge. I’m actually excited. 

Today though, we are onsite. I’m helping the two younger Maphosa brothers with what was missing. I actually think that they’ve been doing okay. The things that are outstanding are stuff that only a hospitality person would know. So I understand why I had to drive down. 

Mapho is also here to inspect the site with her people. She came with Rea. And we all actually work hey. We proper work. 

The HR consultant that we hired joins us a few hours in, and she’s sharing her list of hires. Once we approve, she will put them on payroll. 

“What about the ladies from the village that don’t have bank accounts?” Mapho asks a very valid question. 

“We will have a separate system for them, kgosikgadi. They will get their payment handed to them, but we will have a system where they will sign that they’ve received the payment”, the consultant says. 

Really?! 

Do they teach managing an illiterate workforce in HR? 

“That doesn’t make sense. How can we prove that they know what they are signing for when we know that they cannot read? And how are we keeping them safe from being robbed? All it takes is one person knowing when payday is and these mamas are targeted from the minute that they knock off. It’s an easy grab and guaranteed cash”; I say.

The HR Consultant is stuck. 

“Mapho, you guys have that plan where your workers pay towards a stokvel monthly, right? Then it relaxes the tax a bit. The royal house also has that account where they don’t pay fees. So let’s open accounts for the successful candidates there, but still use a separate payroll system for them because their deductions will be different. And their payroll runs there”, I say. 

“I like that. We will sponsor the staff transport as well”, Rea says. 

I’m very happy with that. 

“Let’s see the list of hires”, I say.

The HR Consultant hands myself and Mmaneo the list. 

“There are more out of country people on this list than actual Tholoana Kingdom citizens”, Mmaneo points out. 

“Well we went with the best presented candidates”, the HR Consultant says. 

She’s honestly beginning to piss me off hey. 

“You want to tell me that with the education systems that exist in this country, we couldn’t find a workforce of 70% Tholoana Kingdom citizens?” I ask her. 

“Well, the ground staff is all Tholoana Kingdom citizens”, she says. 

I actually almost slap her and it’s Mapho that pulls me away. 

“I’m firing you. I don’t think that you captured what we are looking for or our direction”, Mmaneo say. 

“Ma’am, I have a talent pipeline with all the Tholoana Kingdom citizens that applied for the jobs”, she tries to save her skin. 

“Is that supposed to impress us?” I ask. 

“No. It’s just… I can do this. Please give me an opportunity to fix this”, she says.

“Ramasedi”, I call the youngest Maphosa brother.

“Aus’ Zah”, he responds. 

“You have a degree in HR, right?” I say.

I remember him doing a course or a degree or a certificate or something nje in HR. I’m not sure if he finished though.

“Somewhat”, he says.

I have no idea what that means.

“Please sit with our HR Consultant here and fill up our workforce. You know what our vision is. And if there’s a job where a Tholoana Kingdom citizen can do – even if a foreigner scored higher – the Tholoana Kingdom citizen gets it and you put together a development plan for that citizen to get to where we need them to get”, I say.

“Yes, I can do that.” He says. 

“Get busy. I need a list of our final candidates in 48hours. We need to open doors to staff in five days, start with orientation in seven days after they’ve settled in the staff quarters – those who will be staying here – and have them on the payroll in ten days. Can we get that done?” I ask.

“You can count on us, Aus’ Zah”, Ramasedi says.

“Katleho”, I call his partner in crime. 

“Aus’ Zah”, he replies. 

“Please take one of the company cars and find me men – Tholoana Kingdom men – that can do gardening and maintenance. They’ll come here for a straight interview – as these are people who probably didn’t even have access to seeing job advertisements, let alone apply for any. We will accommodate them in the temporary staff quarters.” I say.

“Sho” he says.

“And if you find those that can be developed too, bring them along. We will invest in their development”, Mmaneo says.

He nods his head. 

“Take the Quantum”, Molefe says. 

We nod.

“I’ll take another Quantum and also look. It will work faster”, Molefe continues. 

“I’ll take another one”, Molise. 

We are getting somewhere.

“I’ll go find females who can clean and cook. We will have chefs, but there’s no harm in having mme or two to make the meal a homely meal”, I say. 

Mapho smiles then says, “I’ll borrow you my lady-in-waiting. She will point you in the right direction”.

“I’ll make sure I have the reception area ready to receive our applicants, and that the staff quarters are ready for them. I’ve got three of my unemployed cousins coming to help me. I thought we’d be able to give them jobs as well. We will see what the best fit for them is, but for now they’ll help with prep”, Mmaneo says.

Perfect! 

Mapho and Rea went back to the royal house to basically write up a report on the impact they are already making by this project alone.

It indeed takes us about two weeks to finally have a full workforce in our staff quarters. We are that much closer to opening. My parents have taken my kids because I’m so busy. My sister came down to help us, but obviously she wants a job in return. I’m getting more and more pregnant by the week. But we are pushing through. Molise is starting to worry about me because I’m always on my feet and I’ve had a few “pain” moments. 

Mmaneo has asked me to take two days off and let her run with things. Ramasedi and Katleho are a lot more hands-on as well, so we are definitely gaining momentum. 

Our place is fully booked for the opening and this is just adding more pressure. 

Molise attaches me to some machine and we check the baby. He suddenly gets emotional. 

“What? Is something wrong?” I ask because now I’m in panic.

He doesn’t say anything… just stares at the screen before him. 

“Molise!” I say. 

“I still cannot believe that it’s a baby girl”, he says. 

I smile too. This really makes me happy. 

I also get emotional now. 

“She’s doing okay in there. I’m just worried that mom is a bit strained”, he says. 

I love having a gynae on call nje. I call him hubby. 

“I will have to insist on bed rest”, he says. 

“But we open in –

“Zah, there’s a team of people here helping out. You need to rest. Unless you want to be in hospital on opening night”, he says. 

I get what he means. 

It’s just… 

This is my baby, you know. I want every part of it. 

Molise climbs into the bed with me. He hugs me. I melt in his arms too.

“I’m so excited to be a dad again… and to be doing this part of the journey with you”, he says. 

“Are you ready to be a father of four kids?” I ask him. 

He laughs then says, “I’m a proper khehla now.” 

I laugh too. 

“It’s our last one, neh”, I say.

“Not one more? Do you know how sexy you are when you are pregnant”, he says.

“Molise Maphosa!” Me.

He laughs.

I laugh too.

“Thank you for my kids, Mrs Maphosa”, he says.

I kiss him.

Our kiss gets deeper and more sensual. 

“So, are we allowed to… you know? Surely my body isn’t that stressed”, I say.

He smiles at me as he starts undressing me.