| dc.description.abstract | This paper argues that post conflict communities need capacity to effectively deal with violent conflicts. This study therefore examines avenues through which sport can be used as a catalyst for mediation programmes in Zimbabwe and South Africa, to address sustainable community healing. This will capacitate communities with the skills to mediate and resolve their own conflicts, thereby contributing to knowledge and changing the paradigm of post-conflict community healing. Grounded in the structural functionalist theory and John Paul Lederach’s Multilevel Leadership pyramid, this study was carried out in Mfuleni, Western Cape and Highfields, Harare, where mediation training for sport participants, community coaches, sports men and women were carried out. It was assessed at all the stages using the qualitative research methodology. This study discovered many benefits derived from the sport and mediation training. However, successful implementation of sport and mediation training in post-conflict communities can face challenges around language, different ways of interpreting terms and related issues by stakeholders; the extreme dominance of religion; superstition and use of magic in sport; lack of acceptance in communities on issues around age and gender, owing to patriarchy. It also noted that the school system is replete with loopholes that threaten the security of learners. Also, the school system is caught in the net of propagating patriarchal values, albeit in subtle ways. As such, the need to take all these into consideration cannot be overemphasised | en_US |
