DURBAN - Kuswag Skool from Amanzimtoti took top honours at this year’s Daily News Team Talk finals last night.
The team, consisting of Jessica van Zyl, Mongy Nare and Skye Taljaard, beat Richards Bay High School in the highly contested competition at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Howard College campus.
“It is such a good feeling,” said 16-year-old Jessica van Zyl. She said it took them about three months to get it right.
“We had to get to know each other as a team. We learnt to communicate with other people and not put our own needs first.”
They beat four other schools – Hillcrest High School, Orient Islamic School, Richards Bay High School and Southcity Christian School ((corr)) – to the title.
During the competition, the Kuswag finalists said they learned from the other speakers and also about other cultures.
“We learned to speak English better since we are an Afrikaans school,” Jessica joked.
Mongy Nare,16, said she learned about the challenges other schools went through.
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They chose the topic “Raising the banner for Equality on Sport” because it was an unusual topic.
“We felt it was a very strong topic that affected not only our school, but the country,” said Mongy. They focused on fostering equality among and within various sporting codes in schools and also equality within various sporting codes.
The grade 10 pupils said they would definitely return next year.
Kuswag Skool coach Linda Coetzer said: “I am just terribly excited. I think the fact that we can expose our young pupils to something as powerful and enriching as this competition was a privilege.”
She said the team had surpassed her expectations.
“The win has given them a platform to function as public speakers in the future and they would go from strength to strength,” Coetzer said.
Wendy Nare, Mongy’s mother, was thrilled with her daughter and the team’s accomplishment.
“I am very proud. The girls did really well and they prepared themselves very well. They worked really hard. They did it themselves, from the research on the topic to writing it. All we had to do was edit and guide them.
"We are their biggest fans,” she said.
The proud mother said participating in public speaking had been Mongy’s dream and felt this would be a good stepping stone to bigger things.
The team won a floating trophy and a cheque for R20 000 which they would donate to the school of their choice – iLlovo Primary School.
The top three finalists received gift vouchers to buy books for their respective libraries.
Hilary Augustus, from the Rotary Club’s District 9370, said: “This year’s competition has been incredible.
"The standard has been higher than ever. It has been far more difficult for the adjudicators to determine the winner as the standard goes up each year.”