it depends with the amount of data in discussion. most 'private jobs' do 500bob per day meaning you determine what someone can do in a day and give the number of days and compute the cost.
if for instance it's a 10-day job and the person does it in 2 days, you hand him the 5k for the job. it depends with the agreement and the sensitivity of the job.
African parents don't know how to say sorry.. the closest you will get to a sorry is a 'have you eaten'