I met TJ through a classmate named Brian Chirayeraye. TJ was an evangelist for CMFI and had been preaching the Gospel to Brian. One day Brian told us he was coming and asked us to show up. We went. The Gospel was sound. I was not ready to receive it. But something else happened in that room. TJ mentioned he was an IT manager. The boys mentioned I was the best programmer in our class. We looked at each other with the recognition of two people who had just found someone useful.
The Work We Did
Data Age Solutions was two people — TJ and me. We took turns sleeping at the office. I took Tuesdays and Fridays. He took the rest. From that office, we built things that reached the whole country.
We built the Truworths Zimbabwe website on Drupal. We built a USSD application that ran on Econet mobile networks across Zimbabwe. We built the Shield promotion registration platform for Unilever — winners were meant to travel to Cobham to play with Chelsea legends. A major marketing agency had been given the job and did not have the expertise. They outsourced it to a two-man team. We delivered. For the Unilever project, we received nothing. Not a single cent.
TJ and I consoled each other. We told ourselves the experience was the payment. We were wrong about that but we were not wrong about the work.
The Soldier and the Server
It was 2018 — election year in Zimbabwe. TJ had gone to Cameroon for church commitments. He left me to run Data Age Solutions alone for two weeks.
He called from Cameroon. The server was down. The USSD was down. The commands needed to restart the server were written in my diary. Physically. In the office. In Harare. I was in Mutare.
I took the 4am bus. I arrived at the office, opened my diary, entered the commands. Two minutes later the server was up.
That same day — the first of August 2018 — Zimbabwean soldiers killed seven civilians in broad daylight in the streets of Harare. The people we shared the building with told me around 3pm: go home, something is happening in town. I walked. Thirty minutes through a city that was coming apart. At one point I turned toward a street and saw an army vehicle. Soldiers fired rounds into the air. I turned and went a different direction. I paid three times the normal fare to get home.
I went home thinking about the server. It was up. The clients would never know any of this had happened.
The Awards
In 2025 Data Age Solutions won five awards in a single year. The National Business Excellence Award. The ZimCEO Network Gold for ICT Company of the Year. The Megafest Business Awards Gold for Best Digital Marketing and Advertising Agency. The Honourable Cabinet Summit Award for Excellence in Custom Software Development. The Institute of Human Resources Award for Excellency in Business Transformation.
I stood on the Megafest podium and received the Gold award myself. My boss stood to the side. On the drive home he asked me to come back. I already knew I was not going to. In November 2025 he let me go. The familiar pattern completing itself one final time.
In early 2026 Data Age was invited to the Megafest 20 Best Companies Awards. They won Diamond for Best Digital Marketing and Advertising Agency. I was not invited. I saw pictures.
TJ is the most hardworking person I have ever known in my life. He is also the closest thing I have had to a father figure. He met me as an evangelist on a university campus. He sorted my internship. He called a doctor at midnight the night my daughter was born and handed me a hundred dollars without being asked. Those things do not cancel each other out. They exist together in the complicated truth of a decade-long relationship.