On photo: UNIVEN Debate Fraternity
UNIVEN Debate Fraternity honoured an invitation to compete with other universities nationally and regionally at the Southern African Debating Championship (SAUDC). The 2024 Debating Champi-onship was hosted by the University of Botswana from 07 – 14 July and had over 11 participating universities from South Africa including the University of Fort Hare, Tshwane University of Technol-ogy, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Walter Sisulu University, University of Johannesburg, Wits University and Central University of Technology amongst others. From the SADC region, over 15 universities took part in the tournament including National University of Science and Tech-nology (NUST) from Namibia and Zimbabwe, respectively. The event was officially opened by the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Botswana, Prof David Norris.
UNIVEN Debate Fraternity sent a delegation of five (05) teams (two students per team) and 4 adju-dicators making it a total of 14 students. Dr Percy Mugwedi (Sports Administrator) and Ms Thelma Mashola (Debate Coach) traveled with the team and facilitated the logistics and technical aspects of the competition.
The National tournament runs for seven (7) days with 9 preliminary rounds and 6 out rounds. The out rounds are put into two categories, first category is on English First Language (normally called “open” where only those who have participated in nationals are eligible to compete after preliminary rounds); the second category is called English Second Language ( where only those who are attending nationals for the first time are eligible to compete after the out rounds).
At the end of the tournament, 2 UNIVEN teams had advanced to the ESL Quarter Finals and one (01) student advanced to the semifinals of public speaking. Two of the adjudicators broke for judging both semifinals and Grand Finals of public speaking while the other two adjudicators broke to adjudicate debate quarterfinals and semifinals.
From the teams that qualified for the out rounds, one team was knocked out at quarter finals and the other team advanced all the way to the Grand Finals of the English Second Language category and finished in position two (2) as the overall English Second Language Category. One student obtained number nine (9) in the top 10 of the best ESL speakers and was awarded a Merit Certificate. Three (3) students further obtained 4th , 5th and 6th positions as the Best Public Speakers while one student got the award of Best Public Speaking Adjudicators and were both awarded with medals and Merit Certificates.
The overall institutional rankings qualify UNIVEN Debate Fraternity to proceed and compete at the Pan African Universities Debating Championships (PAUDC) to be hosted by Kyambogo University in Uganda in September and October 2024.
Ms Mokgadi Millicent Shongwe a second-year student studying BSc in Biochemistry and Microbiology from UNIVEN was elected to serve on the SAUDC (Southern African Universities Debating Championships) Council as an Equity Officer for the year 2024/25 and she will preside over fairness, accountability and student discipline portfolio.
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