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More PhD Graduates for DUT Peacebuilding

More PhD Graduates for DUT Peacebuilding

Four more Peace Building Programme students from the Durban University of Technology graduated today (Thursday, 1 September 2016), during the University’s Spring Graduation Ceremonies.

These students: Daiku Dainzenza, Jean Chrysostome Kyala Kimbuku and Ntombizakhe Moyo graduated with their Doctorate degrees, whilst Bongani Mkhize received his Master’s degree.

Dianzenza’s research focused on Training young men in responsible, loving and non-violent parenting. The investigation explored the experiences of young men regarding their own fathers, devising a training programme in responsible, loving and nonviolent fathering and implementing the programme with three groups of young men in different parts of Durban. “The short term outcome of the training indicates that changes in attitude in positive direction did take place for a significant minority of the trainees and suggests that training programmes of this type can be socially beneficially,” said Dainzenza.

According to Kimbuku, since civil wars began in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in the mid-1990s, thousands of boys aged as young as ten years have either been forced to join the national army or local armed groups, or have joined them voluntarily. It is through this that Kimbuku decided to focus his study on preventing children’s participation in armed conflict in North Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of Congo. The research set up peace making circles in four communities to help reintegrate former child soldiers. This approach has deep roots in traditional African conflict resolution and is known throughout central Africa as Baraza. “The peace making circles involved public gatherings where family members of the former child soldiers and community members telling their stories of how the child soldiers behaviour affected them. It provided an opportunity for the former child soldier to publicly apologise for his actions, to commit himself to live a different life and where possible make amends”, he said.

With the concern on ex-prisoners ending back in prison within a short period after their release, Moyo’s investigation focused on Peacebuilding among prisoners and their families: enhancing the impact of the second chance rehabilitation Centre, Bulawayo. According to Moyo, the reason for ex-prisoners returning to prison is due to poor relationships between them (ex-prisoners) and their families. The convicts, said Moyo, often suffer shame and economic hardships as a result of the imprisonment. “Ex-prisoners who are rejected by their families are likely to reconnect with their old friends and to re-engage in criminal activity,” said Moyo. Her (Moyo) research was carried out with a group of ex-prisoners and their families in Bulawayo Zimbabwe and the outcome was an improvement in family relationships.

Meanwhile, Mkhize’s Master’s degree case study was based on Improving conflict resolution in cooperatives: a study in the Vumengazi Authority, in Umlazi. The conflict amongst cooperative members has threatened their survival. According to Mkhize’s research, lack of management skills tends to create conflict in cooperatives, members fight each other for positions in the business, however, they often have no clear understanding of their duties for those positions, and at some point even handling day-to-day challenges. In his findings, Mkhize established that low standards of education, gossip, lack of respect and baring grudges amongst members were some of the main contributors to the conflict.

All three Doctorate students were supervised by Professor Geoffrey Harris while Mkhize was supervised by Dr Sylvia Kaye. Both academics are from the Peace Building Programme. In 2016, there have been seven Doctorates and two Master’s graduates. Currently, the Peace Building Programme has 60 registered students and mostly are at PhD level.

Prof Harris said the Programme encourages its students to carry out action research projects for their thesis work. “We urge our students to identify a real problem and plan and implement an intervention to bring about change. As the four students topics show, training, healing and reconciliation are important themes in our programme. We hope that the training we provide to each student turns them into agents of peacebuilding throughout their live,” he said.

– Noxolo Memela

Pictured: The three DUT Peacebuilding graduates Drs Daiku Dainzenza, Ntombizakhe Moyo and Jean Chrysostome Kyala Kimbuku.

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