By Kerry Lanaghan
Oyisa Katshaza (Left) and Franciscous Crouse (Right).
Photo by: Nelson Mandela University Debating Union
From 27 July to 31 July 2023, the Southern African Universities Debate Championship was hosted by Nelson Mandela University in Gqeberha. There were 112 debaters from 14 universities within Southern Africa at the competition. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the competition would occur every year in July, making this the first competition since 2019. There was a range of topics, from debates about pop culture and feminism to debates about monetary policy, democracy, agriculture, and philosophy.
UCKAR teams A and B both made it to the final of the competition. Their opponents were the University of Zimbabwe A team and Stellenbosch University A team. The motion for the final was “This House believes that life has meaning”. Unfortunately, the UCKAR A team lost against the University of Zimbabwe A team in the final with a tight score of four votes to three. The UCKAR A team consisted of Franciscous Crouse, who is completing his final year in law, and Oyisa Katshaza, a pharmacy honours student. The two debaters have expressed their disappointment in the loss of the final, with Oyisa stating that “More work and attention to detail is necessary for future tournaments to ensure it does not happen again”.
Despite their loss in the final, the UCKAR A team had an excellent score throughout the competition. During the preliminary rounds, UCKAR did not lose a single debate. This is the first time that this has occurred during the Southern African Universities Debate Championship.
Franciscous Crouse Debating at the Southern African Universities Debate Championship.
Photo by: Nelson Mandela University Debating Union
Another significant milestone for UCKAR was Oyisa winning the award for best speaker at the Nationals, with his average speaking score being 79.57. Franciscous came second with an average speaking score of 79. Also, the chairperson of UCKAR Debating, Sovash Chetty, was awarded the best judge at the competition.
Franciscous and Oyisa have competed together before, and they have built a strong partnership with one another. The two debaters competed in the Pan-African Debating Championships in 2021, and won the competition, making them the best debating team in Africa. Franciscous and Oyisa also represented UCKAR Debating in Ghana and in Thailand last year. At the Nationals this year, the team was able to choose a walk-on song for the final, and the two debaters chose to walk on while playing ‘Bella’s Lullaby’ from the Twilight soundtrack. Franciscous and Oyisa state that they chose to walk on to this song as “the development of the spark between Edward and Bella is analogous to the spark in [their] partnership”.
In April 2022, because of winning the Pan-African Debating Championships, they travelled to the United States to compete at the Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS) Round Robin in New York. Which, according to Franciscous, is “Like the Olympics of debating”. However, UCKAR did not offer Franciscous and Oyisa any funding for their trip to New York to compete in the HWS Round Robin. Only the 16 best debating teams in the world are invited to compete at the HWS Round Robin. Considering that this is one of the highest-level debating tournaments in the world, the team decided to fund the trip themselves. Franciscous and Oyisa ended up beating some of the world’s best universities such as Princeton University, Harvard University, and the University of Oxford.
The World University Debating Championships is being hosted in Vietnam in December. “We want to represent Rhodes at the competition at the end of the year, but we already used our own money to compete at the HWS Round Robin,” Franciscous explains. The World University Debating Championship is the largest debating competition in the world, and it would be amazing to have UCKAR debaters compete in the competition. But, the dream team cannot compete without funding from UCKAR.
Franciscous and Oyisa are remarkable debaters and their passion for debating goes without saying. The UCKAR team deserves to participate in the World University Debating Championships and their talent should not have to be restricted because of the lack of funding from the university. It is vital for UCKAR to acknowledge the teams that flourish and offer the support needed to help them succeed further. Considering that the UCKAR debating team has been ranked the best in the country and has beaten some of the top universities in the world, funding the team to advance its achievements globally should be a priority.