The Sunday News
Bruce Chimani Sunday Leisure Correspondent
THE Contemporary Affairs Foundation’s commitment to the development of young people will be showcased once again as the Foundation has coalesced with Intwasa Arts Festival to host the annual National Speech Relay championships.For the past eight years since CA-F was founded, it has enduringly and successfully facilitated the Zimbabwe Schools Public Speaking Championship (ZSPSC) and the Zimbabwe Schools Debating Championship (ZSDC) across schools. Winners at national level have had the opportunity to represent the country at international competitions.
The National Schools Speech Relay Challenge (NSRC) is a public speaking challenge that draws competitors from across national secondary and high schools to display their talent in the art of public speaking and literal art.
As part of the Intwasa Arts Festival programme, this year’s edition will also be used to select finalists who will compete for the single slot to represent Zimbabwe at the May 2015 International Public Speaking Competition in London.
“Each participating school is expected to enter a team of three speakers to constitute a speech relay team; the opener, developer and the closer. The opener goes to the podium, speaks for three minutes focussing on introducing the topic and giving broad frame of the speech. The developer will follow the opener, thoroughly developing the ideas brought out by the opener, building a moving speech which should last for four minutes,” said CA-F in a statement.
The closer ties the speech together, giving a conclusion for three minutes.
The 2012 winner was Musawenkosi Joko, a Lower Six pupil at Matopo High School in Matabeleland South who went on to represent the country at the International Public Speaking Challenge (IPSC) in London in 2013. The competition was hosted and run by the English Speaking Union (ESU). In 2013, the championship was won by Zibusiso Dube, a pupil at Mtshabezi High School in Gwanda who also represented the country at the IPSC (2014) in London.
CA-F is a Pan-African foundation based in Bulawayo that works to reduce poverty and conflict through stimulating and encouraging informed debates, innovative policy alternatives, dissemination and pioneering of influential ideas on how to tackle injustice and inequality.
The organisation specialises in debate training, hosting national championships as well as facilitating the participation of students in international public speaking and debate programmes.
CA-F runs the competition with full support from the Ministry of Education and has previously attracted participating schools from three provinces, namely; Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and South. This year, the competition has grown bigger with participants coming from all provinces across the country.
