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elderly people, allaying their anxieties, promoting self-
sufficiency, and keeping them company until their end
of life”.
Nontando remembers the apartheid era as being both
good and bad for a nurse. “We had no time for white
racists. We grew up during the Black Consciousness
Movement (BCM) when we knew that ‘black is
beautiful’, and didn’t have time to pretend to be
something we were not. We gave all our care and love
to our own people unconditionally and excelled in
what we were doing as nurses,” she said.
Nontando said one of the drawbacks of the time was
that the best jobs were reserved for white people.
“Whites could have senior positions, irrespective of
their qualifications or competence.”
Nontando has been married to Richard Duma since
1968 and they have four children – two sons and two
daughters. She moved to Lamontville when she got
married and the family now lives in Hillcrest, west of
Durban.
From humble beginnings to an academic in the nursing
profession – the story of Dr Phumelele Jabulisiwe Kunene
For some black people growing up during apartheid,
having a Junior Certificate (JC) was one of the major
achievements. Times were tough; the powers that be
were not comfortable with blacks obtaining better
education. They were seen as a threat to the order.
Because education was a light with which black
people could illuminate their future, it was in the
interests of the apartheid government to limit their
educational progress as much as possible.
For a black girl born in 1939 in a remote rural area
called EsakwaBiyela, near Melmoth in what used to
be called Zululand, life was surely going to be tough.
The colour bar system, and then apartheid from 1948,
ensured that black people started life on the back foot.
Like most of her peers, Phumelele Jabulisiwe Kunene
did obtain her JC. However, for the go-getter that
she was, this was not enough. She only left school
because of a lack of funds. Phumelele enrolled for
nursing at KwaCeza, a mission hospital, while she
continued to work towards her matric through private
studies.
Nursing was one of the few professions that black
women could turn to in those days. But for Phumelele,
it was more than that: she ‘loved’ it.
“I grew up in a home very close to a mission hospital.
Nurses were my good role models. I longed to be
part of the caring profession of nursing. Nurses were
smartly dressed in their uniform, and disciplined.
Good Christian values impressed me as l was born
and brought up in a Christian family where caring was
emphasised,” she said.
For a young black woman, nursing was a God-
sent profession. “It also helped for us people with
financial constraints in that as a student, one got a
stipend instead of paying for the tuition fees,” she
remembered.
Back then marriage for nurses was seen as a next
step; nursing and being married was a nice package
indeed! Phumelele moved to Durban when she got
married, and it was here that she got employment.
Nontando Duma, left, with a colleague