The Sunday News
Mbongeni Msimanga Sunday Leisure Correspondent
THE Midlands State University (MSU) debate team raised Zimbabwe’s flag high at the just-ended Malaysia World Universities Debating Championship after two of its members came out second and fifth out of 800 participants from 400 universities.The MSU debate team showed its public speaking abilities at the prestigious event when Samuel Muleya and Darrel Chingarandi took position two and five respectively at Malaysia’s biggest university, Universiti Technologiki Mara, that hosted more than 400 top universities.
Drawing 800 participants from across the globe one of MSU’s debate participants and public speakers Muleya went into the finals in a stiff competition that saw him spiritedly fight his way to the top.
“The debate team put up a good display at the world competition in face of 800 participants who graced the event. I personally managed to break into the finals with my colleague Darrel Chingarandi making it to fifth position,” said Muleya.
The debate team that carried the banner of Pan-Africanism at the prestigious event said the achievement was a milestone given that they were a developing African university that was competing against top notch universities such as Harvard.
“I personally believe in Pan-Africanism and it was what guided our debate team to achieve in the recently held debate competitions. The competition pitted top class universities like Harvard University and many other world recognised universities,” said Muleya.
He said he was greatly inspired by the oratory and electrifying public speaking skills of President Mugabe.
Muleya believes that they would scale to greater heights in the near future and paid tribute to the entire MSU whose student development abilities had taken them that far.
“I am inspired by His Excellency, President Mugabe’s oratory skills, and we would love to see more youths emulate him. I believe he is the best orator in Africa,” he said.
Chingarandi said he was happy to have come out fifth in the debate championship. He expressed optimism on the future of debate and public speaking abilities in Zimbabwe saying the country was in the right direction in as far as its standards of education were concerned.
He said debate was a healthy way of exchanging ideas globally as well as criticising some of the evils that the current generations were facing as a result of some policies, either politically, economically or socially.
“Our prospects are to be a life changing debate team. We do not debate for the fun of it but we debate to find global ideas, perfect solutions and various opinions on doing certain things and our goal is specifically to make a positive change in Zimbabwe and a change for the Zimbabweans,” he said.
Muleya carries with him several accolades in the debate competition. He was named the public speaker of the year in 2012 at the National Championships, and that same year he was also a finalist at the World Championships in Berlin, Germany.
In 2013, he was also crowned gold medallist at the African Championship in Berlin and was also a semi-finalist at the World University Championships in India.
