Story by Bruce Chahwanda, Political Editor
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has saluted Team Zimbabwe, which won the 2024 Orate Africa Moot Competition in Botswana.
Speaking after meeting the team at State House Harare this Monday, President Mnangagwa noted that the win validates the superiority of Zimbabwe’s heritage based education curriculum in the region.
The team paid a courtesy call on the President Mnangagwa at State House, Harare this Monday.
President Mnangagwa saluted the students for raising the flag high by beating 19 other schools from the region to come out tops.
“I delight in meeting our young people who excel. There are so many kids of the same age and same school, but those who find their way to this place should feel privileged because they performed well. That is why they come to meet the Head of State. I congratulate them,” he said.
At the competition where eight SADC countries were represented, Team Zimbabwe emerged as the overall winners with the best coach, best female speaker, and best male speaker of the competition.
“It was very tough. There were many schools and countries, but we managed to push through many sleepless nights and we brought the trophy back home to Zimbabwe,” the Best female Speaker, Ms Kimberly Chamboko stated.
“The competition in itself was difficult, but through sleepless nights and hard work, we managed to win. The exposure itself and the chance you get to represent the country is something I will not forget,” the Best Male Speaker, Mr Simbarashe Mujuru noted.
The Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Dr Torerai Moyo said the victory cements the country’s heritage-based education framework as superior within the region.
“Zimbabwe represents the southern region in the next competition to be held in Ghana in August, and we wish our students very well. The importance of this competition is that education should be meaningful. Education that does not produce goods and services that our people need is useless and is not important. By the heritage-based curriculum, we want to identify talents in our students.
“A moot court is like a mock court session where we have judges as adjudicators and they have won. So heritage-based curriculum ensures that they have identified their career pathway. So on completion of A-level, I can envision that these students will proceed to university and study law and become lawyers. That is the advantage of the heritage-based curriculum that our President has approved for us and we are implementing it very well.”
At the competitions, Team Zimbabwe was represented by students from Heritage School and St. George’s College.
