Bots hosts the World Universities Debating Championships 2011

SHELDON WEEKS
Correspondent | Monday January 10, 2011 00:00

The students came from over 200 universities.  In Botswana the event was organised by a committee chaired by Justice Motlhabani, who has been debating for 12 years.  Most recently he convened the second Pan-African Universities Debating Championship held in Namibia with 10 participating African countries.  He had a large committee and over 200 volunteers to help keep things moving.

Because the University of Botswana does not yet have a hall large enough to accommodate an event like this the final sessions, debates and celebration were held at the new Sir Seretse Khama Barracks Auditorium in Mogoditshane and at the Gaborone International Conference Centre.

The top speakers were from Australia (Monash and Sydney) and Oxbridge.  The London School of Economics and Yale University made the semi-finals, but lost to the Australians.  The top five speakers with accumulated points ranging from 767 to 756 were as follows: Victor Finkel (Monash A), followed by Tim Mooney (Sydney A), Fiona Prowse (Monash A) and tied for fourth place, Ben Woolgar (Oxford A) and Bronwyn Cowell (Sydney A).

Teams also competed for 'English-as-a-Foreign-Language' status.  The top team here was from Tokyo, Japan. The Botswana A team's rank position was 236 and Botswana B team 262 (out of 312 teams).  They did better than Makerere, Zimbabwe and Lesotho.

Lots of entertainment was provided besides the debate, including a Karaoke Night, a New Year's Eve and Break Night Party, outings to Mokolodi Nature Reserve, and a Comedy Night at Phakalane Golf Estates were in the offing.

The biggest problem the organisers faced was catering for all the different diets: Kosher, Hallal, Vegetarian, Vegan  and others.   The key sponsors and partners were the University of Botswana, four national ministries, three airlines, a number of key hotels, newspapers, Debswana, BOTA, BEDIA and a few outstanding individuals including Honourable Dumelang Saleshando, Dr Nomsa Mbere and Advocate George Bisos.