Rhodesfield Technical High School’s debate teams have done it again this year.
The seniors won the Absa provincial championships trophy in June and came second at the Gauteng provincial schools championships.
This made Rhodesfield the best debating school in the Ekurhuleni district.
The junior team was not far behind the seniors. They obtained a fourth place at the Gauteng provincial championships, beating King David, Linksfield, Trinity House, Heron Bridge, Crawford, Lonehill and St Dunstan’s, but then lost to Parktown High School for Girls in the final.
At the Gauteng debating league, the teams came first and third respectively and went to the quarter-finals at Constitutional Hill.
In the quarter-final, the seniors beat Townsview and in the semi-final Hyde Park. They will take on Basa Tutorial in the final.
The junior team beat Fons Luminis in the quarters and went on to beat Glen Vista in the semi-final. Freedom Community College will be their opponent in the final.
Rhodesfield is one of the biggest feeders of the Gauteng provincial delegation, with many learners in the past having gone as far as world schools’ debating tournaments with the South African team.
This year, six learners are going to take part in the South African national schools’ debating tournament in December at the University of Pretoria. They are Kutsaka Banyini, Khalipha Moni and Anna Mtawanira in the junior division, with Phenyo Mphela, Nosipho Sokhela and Nomsa Mboneli in the senior division.
Nomsa Mboneli scooped both the best provincial and best national senior speaker trophies at the Absa debating tournament, where Nkateko Hlongwane, Lesego Ngoasheng, Nosipho Sokhela and Phenyo Mphela also won golden medals for ranking in the top 10 best provincial and national senior speakers.
In the junior division, Anna Mtawanira, Khalipha Moni, Kutsaka Banyini and Ntando Shamase won medals for being in the top 10 best junior speakers in both the Gauteng provincial schools’ championships and the Gauteng debating league.
Nomsa will be going to Shanghai in China with Tshimong’s SA debate team to take part in the world schools’ debating tournament.
