By Nqaba Matshazi
One of Sister Dominic Kunaka’s biggest teachings was to teach her pupils the value of two words; “thank you”.
Any student of Sacred Heart will tell you that after faith, prayer and probably cleanliness, gratitude ranked quite highly among the values and principles that the students learnt.
You had to say thank you for receiving your meal, test marks back from the teacher and you even had to express your gratitude for being punished.
The idea was that punishment was meant to build you and whoever was meting it deserved gratitude for that.
A former student of Sister Dominic recalled on Facebook how she took these lessons to high school, where she was caned by a teacher and she responded by thanking her.
Thinking she was being flippant, the teacher recalled the student for more punishment and to that she responded by thanking her again, only serving to fuel her rage even further.
That is the funny side of the story, but gratitude is one of the lifelong lessons Sister Dominic passed to her young students.
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I first met Sister Dominic when I was in Grade 2 and she was coming in as the headmistress, quite a colossal figure, a very strict educationist, but underneath this veneer was a witty and lovable character.
She did not teach me during my seven years at Sacred Heart, but she had an omnipresence, where you felt her hovering over your shoulder all the time.
A stream ahead of me at Sacred Heart was my cousin, Bervelyn Sengwayo and a stream below my other cousin, Nduduzo Mpofu Years later, I was joined by my other relatives, Velempini Ncube and Mlondolozi Moyo, while a family friend Bhekinkosi Ngubeni also joined the great trek to Esigodini.
This is how much faith our families had invested in Sacred Heart under the leadership of Sister Dominic.
Raphael Khumalo, formerly a chief executive officer at Alpha Media Holdings, also sent his son to Sacred Heart and he recalls that some of his relatives, probably impressed by the leadership of Sister Dominic and her team and the pass rate at the school, also sent their children to that institution.
“She was dedicated to education and her faith,” Khumalo said when he heard of her passing two weeks ago.
“Through her hard work, in my family network we have two medical doctors and two PhD holders.”
I remember other families that made beelines to Sacred Heart during my time there, these include the Ndlelas, Mthabisi, Zibusiso and Babongile; the Malabas, Ricky and Nomagugu; the Dubes, Mark (may his soul rest in peace), Gailey and Nkululeko.
I could go on.
Such was the allure of Sister Dominic that whole families went through her hands and all spoke very highly of her leadership and how the school was grooming future leaders But it was not just about building families, she also had an eye on the future.
Sister Dominic had an audacious goal of building a girls’ high school in Esigodini, but funds were short.
One day, when she was taking pupils on a trip, they encountered then president Robert Mugabe, who was surprised to see her marshalling pupils from Esigodini.
Mugabe and Sister Dominic were both from Zvimba, hundreds of miles from Esigodini, and soon they started a conversation, where the nun told the late former president about her vision for a girls’ high school.
Years after the encounter, Sister Dominic had long left the school, Mugabe made good on his promise to donate towards the school’s construction.
Khumalo, who served on the institution’s school development committee speaks very highly of Sister Dominic, saying: “Though she left very young, she had achieved what many men in similar or better positions could never achieve. She was a true servant of Christ.”
Now that she is gone, there is not much left to do other than to thank her for the services that she rendered to education in Matabeleland, particularly in Esigodini, where she spent most of her life.
Sister Dominic taught us an invaluable lesson — to show gratitude in good times and in the face of adversity —and for that we can never thank her enough for her services to education and to Matabeleland South.
Although born in Zvimba, Sister Dominic’s family decided to bury her at Sacred Heart a testament to where heart and her life belonged and hopefully she can watch her vision come to fruition from heaven where she truly belongs.
