Debaters take to the King David Victory Park podium
The school recently hosted and won this inaugural challenge
‘This House believes that absolute free speech is essential for a functioning democracy.’
Recently, this challenging and extremely rigorous topic was debated, dissected, and dismembered, in the FW de Klerk Foundation Inaugural Challenge Debate at King David Victory Park (KDVP).
The school’s team consisted of Levi Lipschitz, Dylan Steiner, and Kate Lange, who shared the podium with a tough team of high-quality debaters from Randfontein High School. The debate was described as being robust and had some exceptional debating from both teams.
The FW de Klerk Foundation is said to be very active in working with young people from diverse backgrounds in its quest to promote intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, and cross-cultural dialogue. The foundation believes that an informed conversation among the youth is the foundation of a cohesive society and has a particular mandate to foster a greater understanding of constitutional literacy in young people, in the belief that the South African Constitution constitutes the foundation of South Africa’s democracy.
Dr Elizabeth Lever, KDVP’s head of English, said in pursuit of their quest to promote dialogue between the youth, in 2023 the organisation decided to introduce a new initiative, the Challenge Debate, between schools from different communities. “We were honoured to be asked to host this prestigious Inaugural Challenge Debate. This invitation was the consequence of KDVP’s reputation as one of the premier debating schools in Gauteng; the foundation believed that KDVP debaters had the caliber to contribute to the success of the debate.”
In the same month the challenge took place the school’s senior and junior debate teams also took part in the final debate of the Atheneum Debating League, of which the King David are founder members. Both teams had fought tenaciously through 11 previous rounds to reach the finals. Although the Seniors lost to Jeppe High School for Boys, and the juniors lost to Roedean School, KDVP placed first in the context of individual speaker points and rankings.
The debate was described as a success, with officials from the foundation in attendance, as well as several representatives of the National Foundation’s Dialogue Initiative, an NGO that works closely with the organisation in their shared vision of promoting dialogue and conversation among the youth in all communities.
Judging the debate were three of the country’s respected adjudicators and debaters, Bella Mkhabela and Christopher Hojem as well as third adjudicator, Jaki Seroke, who was closely involved in the liberation struggle and was imprisoned on Robben Island for six months. Seroke spoke at the end of the evening, commenting on the role of democracy in the new South Africa, and suggested the way forward.
“The fact that KDVP won the debate was pleasing, but of far greater significance was the symbolism of this most enjoyable evening. A large contingent of KDVP’s young debaters attended the debate with their coach, Gabriel Brouard-Ancer. We know that the future of debating at KDVP is in good hands. We would like to thank our Senior coach, Dr Bettina Buabeng-Baidoo, for facilitating the Inaugural Challenge Debate,” said Lever.
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