For some, the route to even think of being here doesn’t stretch that long, but for us here in Africa it spans more than a decade as it in my case. But that does not mean we love this sport any less, it does not mean we are any less committed to it nor should our desire to succeed in it be questioned. It is just the unfortunate reality of this community that we all belong to and we just have to be honest enough about it to have the courage to say it out loud.

My journey to get to this point began in 2009 after I couldn’t make the chess team in high school. I barely lasted 30 seconds in my first ever debate speech, but that did not break my stride, it did not slow my momentum at any moment from there on nor did it take my pride.

I am Boemo Phirinyane from Palapye, Botswana, the 2014 Pan African Champion and Worlds Universities Debate Championships 2021 Deputy Chief Adjudicator and being here wasn’t on the cards for me, but here I am.

Kat also cares deeply about the development of the Australian circuit. She recognises first-hand the difficulty of trying to break into debating as someone who attended a public school and how class divisions in debating mean many clever and talented novices from public schools never end up pursuing debating beyond their first tournament. Kat has delivered training seminars to institutions beside her own, began the Australian WOC mentoring initiative and is always willing to hear out a novice debater who wants to get better at the activity.

Kat feels it is an immense privilege to have been selected to be a CA on an all-POC CAP.  She is grateful to all those responsible for the trust they have placed in her and will strive to make Tshwane WUDC a successful tournament.

Bea reached the finals of Australs in 2022, UADC in 2024, and ABP in 2022, 2023, and 2024. She was the Top Speaker of ABP in 2023, the Top ESL Speaker at Australs in 2022, and ranked 9th ESL Speaker at WUDC in 2022. She also served as Chief Adjudicator for Australs in 2024 and UADC in 2022. However, her proudest achievement is being a co-convenor of Diliman Debating.

Since 2023, Bea hosted eight online tournaments, including Diliman WGM which raised funds for reproductive health and gender-affirming care in the Philippines. She remains passionate about bridging communities through debate and looks forward to continuing this work as she transitions from competition to being a ‘dino’.

Bea is passionate about the vision of Tshwane WUDC and is incredibly honored to serve as DCA for the bid. She hopes to continue listening and working with the global debating community to make debate a more inclusive and meaningful space.

Mr. Mendela’s tabbing and organising skills are rivalled only by his exceptional people skills. His ability to remain composed under pressure, stay optimistic amidst chaos and consistently demonstrate intelligence are among his greatest strengths. Lucien is currently contributing code to his personal debate tournament management system, Debase (though he’s in search of a new name). This SaaS product streamlines event organization, management, invoicing, and everything else an event organizer might need. Lucien uses these tools to empower others across Africa to host, manage, and tab tournaments, making the impossible happen overnight in the African debating circuit, sees is a computer scientist by profession he uses this SaaS product to explain why he does not want to retire from the sport. He has earned the nickname “Africa’s Big Brother” among many in the circuit, though he humbly denies it, claiming he’s still “very young” despite nearly a decade of active involvement in debating while pursuing his other endeavours.

This dedication explains Lucien’s robust and ever-growing debate career. He has tabbed all of the major tournaments across the world, including the Pretoria Parley Invitational, Free State Open, Gauteng Open, Cape Town Open, Accra Open, and Olympia. Additionally, he has tabbed several tournaments multiple times, such as SANUDC, Uhuru Worlds, Jozi Rumble, and PAUDC. Adding to his impressive achievements, Lucien is an official WUDC Panama 2024 Tab Team member! Beyond tabbing, Lucien has coached the Monash South Africa Debate Union and currently coaches the University of Pretoria Debate Union, all while pursuing his master’s degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at the same university.

Lucien is also an engaging conversationalist, with a knack for discussing virtually any topic. If you’re keen to learn Mandarin or Spanish, he’s your guy, as these are the latest additions to his growing list of languages. Having Lucien on the team guarantees more than just an experienced and prolific organizer or judge or a tech guru you’ll also gain a supportive therapist and a stand-up comedian for good vibes.

If there’s a major tournament, Mace has probably tabbed it. From PAUDC, UADC and WUDC, his résumé is a roll call of debating excellence. Whether it’s online or offline, his tournaments are the gold standard efficient, fair, and fueled by his love for “tab-life” or maybe the fear of retirement, which he never speaks about or entertains. Mace is affectionately teased for his paradoxical existence: a proud Zimbabwean whose calendar might suggest he’s more of a global nomad.

In the debate world, Mace is both admired (by his 5 friends) and teased. His coaching and organisational wizardry make him a legend, but his obsession with debating often comes at the expense of his love life a fact no one lets him forget. Still, his true love remains the community, where he’s inspired countless debaters, smoothed over chaotic tabroom dramas, and made every tournament feel like a masterclass. For Mace, debating isn’t just a sport it’s a way of life. And for the African debate community, he’s the coach, tabber, and mentor they didn’t know they couldn’t live without.

For the past 3 years, Simran has made herself known as the ‘most efficient tabber’ in India, although she would modestly deny this. Simran thrives on the pressure of running a tournament on time and she is definitely not afraid to cut anyone off after check-in closes. In all her time debating in the Asian circuit, Simran has accumulated 5 adjudicator breaks, including the major Sydney AWDC 2021, has become the President of and convened her debsoc’s annual PD, tabbed a whopping 45 tournaments including the upcoming Panama WUDC 2025, Campbeltown Australs 2022 and 2 editions of AWGMDCs. Simran is also very excited to expand her tabbing portfolio and achieve her longtime dream of Tab Directing an edition of WUDC.

Dominic

Throughout the years, I always felt weird that we, as one of the largest country in the world, have very limited representation on the global stage, even when we have a huge amount of talents, that unfortunately never been to International majors, due to constraint over time, travel and money.

In beyond, there has been many times where I feel WUDC has been not doing enough as a safe space, that guarantee safe discourse, especially when it comes to people making triggering and over-generalising arguments against us. For the future edition of WUDC, I wish we could establish a better guideline in terms of equity to help facilitate some of the difficult topics more.

I hope Tshwane WUDC could be one of the best experience that I had throughout the years, and I cannot wait to hear about the success of the tournament.

This WUDC will substantially reduce the cost, which will make it accessible for a vast majority of the countries and communities around the world.

I genuinely hope 2027 WUDC comes to Africa, as it’s gonna be the most accessible WUDC in probably a long time.