One of the SASDB’s three core focus areas is selecting and training a national schools debating team, which represents South Africa at international competitions. South Africa has participated in international debating tournaments regularly since 1998, when we sent a team to participate in the World Schools Debating Championships in Jerusalem, Israel.
Since then, we have gone from strength to strength. South Africa is recognised as one of the leading debating nations in the world. The highlights of our World Schools exploits include reaching the finals in Germany, in 2004 and Bangkok Thailand in 2014. Three South African speakers have ranked as the best speakers in the world in 2004, 2009, 2015 and 2019. We have won multiple international tournaments including the Eurasian Schools Debate Championships and the Vancouver Online Debate tournament in 2020.
The pages in this section will tell you more about South Africa’s involvement in international debating tournaments.