University of Pretoria Debating Union hosts annual Intervarsity Debating Tournament

SHANNON DELBRIDGE

From 11 to 12 May the University of Pretoria Debating Union (UPDU) hosted their annual Intervarsity Debating Tournament, the Pretoria Parley Invitational, known in the debating circuit as PPIV. The event was a huge success with minimal delays between the debating rounds and a provided lunch for participants that was catered for by Spaghetti.

The tournament aims to provide a platform for university students to discuss and debate pressing issues that exist in our world today. The tournament had a large chief adjudication panel with members from all around the world, making sure that the motions that were set and debated were fair and not biased to a specific team. The debating style at this tournament was British Parliamentary style. Therefore, had two teams in proposition and two teams in opposition of the motion.

The UPDU chairperson, Rimbilana Shingange, was the convener at the tournament and made sure to keep the circuit aware of the motions being debated via the tournament’s Facebook page. These motions included the likes of: “This house believes that self-interest should be viewed as a legitimate moral principle”, as well as “This house regrets the rise of unconventional politicking”.

This was also the first tournament in the circuit to run on a Tier ticket system, allowing participants free entrance to the tournament or alternative entrance and a provided lunch. This system was extremely successful and will hopefully be implemented in future tournaments.

Four UP teams made it to the quarter- finals: Team Carolinians (Koketso Nonyane and Bradley Tjongarero), Team Eyak (Bulelwa Jita and Itumeleng Choche), Team Sami (Zoleka Mazibuko and Rorisang Moyo) and Team Tiwi (Franciscus Crouse and Thuli Madumo).

Two teams from UP made it into the Semi- Finals: Team Eyak and Team Tiwi. One UP team made it to the finals: Team Tiwi.

However, the overall winners of the tournament were Noluthando Honono (University of Johannesburg) and Pule Mmula (University of the Free State).