The North-West University (NWU) can finally boast about producing two of the best South African university debaters. Jeanett Mosala (25) and Zibusiso Ndlovu (20) who are both members of the NWU Debate Society, recently won the South African National Universities Debate Champions (SANUDC) in the category English as a Second Language.

Being the first debate team from the NWU to win this championship, the pair is over the moon.

“We are incredibly proud of our performance at SANUDC. Winning this competition was a huge achievement; it showed that all our hard work and efforts did not go to waste,” says Jeanett who recently completed her honours in financial accounting.

The tournament was held at the University of Johannesburg and drew debate teams from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia. In the finals the NWU team was up against debaters from the University of the Free State, University of the Witwatersrand and Tshwane University of Technology.

The debate style used at the competition was the same as the one being used in British Parliamentary. After 11 rounds and 11 topics, the final motion of the house that saw them walk away with the title was “We believe #MenAreTrash”. 

“Winning the finals was not particularly hard, but getting to the finals was a different story,” says third-year electro-mechanical engineering student, Zibusiso. “Jeanett and I were in last place in the two preliminary rounds, but we were able to excel in the end.”

After winning the SANUDC, the pair jetted off to Mexico to take part in the World University Debate Challenge 2018. After going up against students from some of the world’s most prestigious universities, they reached the quarter finals. 

The NWU looks forward to celebrating Zibusiso and Jeanett’s next successes.

 South African National Universities Debating Championship winners: Jeanett Mosala and Zibusiso Ndlovu.