Tag: provinces

Gauteng

There are four debating leagues in Gauteng which are recognised by the Gauteng Schools Debating Board and include the possibility for speakers to be selected into the Gauteng Debating squad: the SACEE debating league, the Gauteng Debating League, the Constitution Hill Debating League and the Atheneum Debating League. The top teams from all leagues come together to participate in the provincial championships, where speakers are selected as provincial trialists.

 

SACEE

The SACEE debating league was founded by the South African Council of English Education (SACEE), and still has close ties with that organisation. It incorporates around 50 schools from all over Gauteng. Preliminary rounds are held in geographical regions: Eastern (East Rand), Western (West Rand and some northern Johannesburg schools), Central (most Johannesburg schools) and Northern (Pretoria and Midrand). The top two thirds of schools from each region progress to a combined competition, where they face schools from other regions. After this process has been completed, the top 20 schools qualify to attend the provincial championships. SACEE has its own championships in addition to the provincial tournament.

 

Gauteng Debating League

The Gauteng Debating League (GDL) is a new debating league that was established in 2010 to develop debating talent in poorer schools, who traditionally could not afford to enter the SACEE league. The league consists of a number of training weekends and mini-tournaments throughout the year, and culminates in a championship weekend in August.

 

Constitution Hill Debating League

CHDL is run by the Tehuti Institute and Constitution Hill, in partnership with the Gauteng Schools Debating Board. CHDL is a debating league aimed at development and enrichment in Gauteng.

The CHDL includes over 80 schools from different regions throughout Gauteng. The teams compete in a minimum of four preliminary rounds before competing at the CHDL championship rounds, which holds the final at the Constitutional Court.

 

Provincial Championships

The provincial championships generally incorporate 40 junior teams and 40 senior teams, from these four leagues. The provincial Championships are hosted in the third term of the public schools calendar.

 

Contact

GSDB: gautengdebating@gmail.com

GSDB Chair: Chris Hojem (christopherhojem@gmail.com)

Limpopo

Limpopo has  been a regular participant in the annual National Schools Debating Championships. With the Limpopo Schools Debating Board teams becoming more competitive through training initiatives within the province, they have been able to produce nationally competitive speakers who have qualified for both National Academy and National Team trials.

Currently, the debating structure in Limpopo is still developing. For this year, the aim is to allow the winners from the various tournaments in the region (Polokwane) to participate in a provincial competition. A team for participation in the national tournament will be selected from the provincial competition.

 

Contact

Tlou Mashitisho

Mobile: 072 910 9910

Email: tmmash@gmail.com / tlou@sadebating.org

The website of the Polokwane Debating League can be found at http://polokwanedebating.blogspot.com.

Western Cape

There are four debating leagues in the Western Cape: Rotary League, Township Debating League, Boland Schools Debating League, and Winelands Debating League. The top teams from each league proceed to the provincial championships, where triallists are selected for the Western Cape provincial teams.

Rotary Debating League

Rotary is by far the largest league in the Western Cape. It services Cape Town schools and is run by the Rotary Club and the UCT Debating Union. It has about 40 member schools which compete in a junior and senior competition. Debates are held weekly, on a Monday evening (a given school will speak once every three weeks). The league breaks to quarters in August.

Township Debating League

The Township Debating League (TDL) is a league run by UCT students through Ubunye, a campus-based development agency. TDL was established in 2004 in an attempt to address the huge disparity between schools which could afford to hire coaches and participate in the Rotary League, and those which could not. TDL is operating in 22 schools across townships surrounding Cape Town, including Philippi, Khayelitsha, Strandfontein, Langa and Ottery, and reaches over 300 learners. Essentially, TDL aims to develop critical thinking, argumentation, and general public speaking skills through the medium of debate. In recent years, the programme has recognised a deficiency in the English ability of its learners. English is the second, and sometimes third languages for all the learners that participate in TDL, and even though they all attends schools which teach in English, many of them battle with vocabulary and grammatical mistakes. As a result, in 2010, TDL introduced a functional English element as part of the programme, trying to help the learners to improve their English. TDL goes into each school in the programme once a week throughout the school year. Each school is assigned one or two coaches (depending on class size) who run through the programme content as well as any extra material that is provided, such as the functional English course and bi-weekly content packs detailing hot topics in current affairs. TDL organises two tournaments and several training days which are spread out throughout the year and take place over the weekends.

Boland Schools Debating League

The Boland Schools Debating League is run by the University of Stellenbosch Debating Society. The league consists of 10 member schools from areas in and around Stellenbosch who are each allowed to enter a maximum of 2 teams in the junior category and 2 teams in the senior category. As a result, each Monday evening from 18h00 until 20h30 at the Arts Building there are roughly 40 teams that debate each other. After 6 -8 rounds of debating, the tournament breaks to quarters, semis and then finals.

Winelands Debating League

The Winelands Debating League (WDL) is a high school development debating league, modeled on the Township Debating League but operating in the greater Stellenbosch area. There are four participating schools: Kayamandi, Makupula, Luckhoff and Cloetesville High School, all of whom are English second language schools and all of whom are being introduced to World Schools Style Debating for the first time through this project. WDL has weekly coaching sessions at each of the schools as well as training days and tournaments that take place over weekends on Stellenbosch University campus. All this is coordinated by student volunteers from the university. The league operates in partnership with Maties Community Service, a registered non-profit organisation.

Provincial Championships

The debating season in the Western Cape culminates in the provincial championships, which incorporates teams from all of the provincial leagues. The top teams from each league are invited to attend provincials, with the number of teams that each league is allowed to send being proportional to its size. In recent years the championships have grown in size, with over 50 teams now participating.

Contact

To contact the Western Cape Schools Debating Board, please email:

    Chairperson of the WCSDB: Dewald Visser: <deputychairperson.wcsdb@gmail.com>

Rotary: Thomas von Zahn <thomas.a.von.zahn@gmail.com>

TDL: Alli Appelbaum <alli.appelbaum@townshipdebating.org.za>

WCSDB secretary: Yashodhan Nair <NRXYAS001@myuct.ac.za>

The website of the WCSDB can be found at http://wcsdb.org.za/.

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