The Sunday News
Bruce Chimani recently in Harare
WHEN Lupane State University debate teams arrived at Harare Polytechnic for the sixth edition of the Zimbabwe National Debate Championships last week, they did not foresee themselves being eventual winners. One of the things that they revealed to this publication and which they seemed eager to accomplish was to do their very best in the competition as a way of honouring the institution’s late acting Vice-Chancellor Dr Mclean Mackson Bhala who passed away early this month.
Rightly so, three teams from LSU made it into the semi-finals with one of them eventually scooping the grand prize.
To achieve this they had to outdo debate teams from other universities, polytechnics and teachers’ colleges.
Some of the institutions that were represented are Bulawayo Polytechnic, Joshua Nkomo Polytechnic, Mutare Teachers College, Hillside Teachers College, Nyadire Teachers College, Belvedere Technical Teachers College, Masvingo Polytechnic, Marymount Teachers College, Morgan Zintec College, Catholic University, Mutare Polytechnic, Chinhoyi University of Technology, Bondolfi Teachers College, ZOU, Seke Teachers College, Masvingo Teachers College, Great Zimbabwe University, Harare Polytechnic, University Of Zimbabwe and Gweru Polytechnic.
The team named “Gulabi Gang” from LSU, comprising Nompilo Nkomo and Patience Sibanda saw themselves emerging champions after a tight pulling of ropes from their counterparts.
Organised by the Contemporary Affairs Foundation, this year’s ZNDC saw more than 300 individuals — debaters, organisers, volunteers and staff converging on Harare Polytechnic for a week.
The debate adopted the British Parliament style.
The motion in the finals was “This house will aggressively lobby for the transformation of SADC into a Supra National Organisation” and as standard throughout the competition, participants were given 15 minutes to prepare.
“Opening government” was the team from the University of Zimbabwe comprising Ntandoyenkosi Khumalo and Nqobile Ndlovu. “Opening opposition” was the Nkomo and Sibanda duo from LSU. “Closing government” comprised Vladimir Tomuseni and Brighton Musaidzi from Harare Polytechnic while “closing opposition” was from first time attendees, Catholic University of Zimbabwe, with Aretha Gonyora and Fungai Chivaurah.
“We are really excited about this victory and we dedicate it to our late VC who was very supportive of debate. He would have been proud if he were here to see us being crowned as the best team in the country,” said Nompilo from LSU.
Nompilo, who was recently crowned the best speaker during the Impact Africa International debate tournament, said they indeed expected to do their best but were not exactly sure they would eventually win.
“No one enters a competition without expecting to win and we are really shocked to actually have won it. The motions were indeed fair throughout the competition and the competition from other teams was also tough,” she added.
Their team, nicknamed the “Gulabi Gang”, gets its name from the Indian Gulabi Gang which is an extraordinary women’s movement formed in 2006 by Sampat Pal Devi in the Banda District of Uttar Pradesh in Northern India.
The group is popularly known as Gulabi or “Pink” Gang because the members wear bright pink saris and wield bamboo sticks. Sampat says: “We are not a gang in the usual sense of the term, we are a gang for justice.”
“We also believe we can use debate to show that women also have a place in areas which are mostly dominated by men,” added Nompilo who is studying Human Resources Management.
Patience added: “We left Bulawayo on the same day that our late VC was buried — it was sad because we couldn’t attend the burial and so we told ourselves that we would honour him in this tournament. We have been good competition as LSU for other debaters but we have never won the ZNDC so we told ourselves that we have to break the chain and do our level best and win the tournament.”
The Development Studies final year student said debate improves her analytical skills on contemporary issues and has been a lifeline in her school work.
As champions, LSU’s Dulabi Gang are set to represent the country in the World Debate Championships that are set for Kualar Lumpar in Malaysia in December.
