The Rhodes University debating team dominated at the National University Debating Championships held in Port Elizabeth earlier this month.
The Rhodes University debating team dominated at the National University Debating Championships held in Port Elizabeth earlier this month.
After debating motions such as: banning circumcision; allowing parents compulsory access to their kids’ Facebook accounts; Iran’s right to a nuclear weapon and whether Turkey should join the EU, the powerful finalists were lead to their ultimate motion which was whether the transmission of HIV should be criminalised.
At the end of this passionately debated motion, a slight majority of the adjudication panel awarded the victory to a team from the University of Witwatersrand.
Although Rhodes University did not return with the trophy, the team occupied three seats among the top five speakers of the tournament.
Clive Eley, Ingrid Cloete and Richard Stupart came in third, fourth and fifth place respectively. Rhodes also returned with the award for the most well spoken institution, which means that they expressed and presented themselves well.
Some students also attended the tournament to compete as adjudicators. In this category, Rhodes University walked away with the prize for the Best Adjudicating Institution with Afika Nqeto as the Best Adjudicator.
Since 1996, the annual National Universities’ Debating Championships has hosted over 120 teams of university debaters from a wide range of Southern African institutions including Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia.
Rhodes Union Chairperson Kabwela Chisaka was very proud of her team and envisaged only more success as they go on to represent the university at the Pan African Universities’ Debating Championships in Namibia and the World Universities’ Debating Championships in Botswana.
