MSU hosts 150 universities

Elizabeth Tsuro Midlands Reporter
THE Midlands State University (MSU) will this year host over 150 universities from 20 African countries during the Pan African Universities Debate Championships.

The tournament, in its eight year, will have over 1,500 participants debating on possible solutions to challenges such as poverty, hunger, armed conflicts, and underdevelopment, among others affecting the continent.

The MSU is hoping to raise $70,000 by December through fundraising initiatives to host the event.

The chairperson of the Pan African Universities Debate Championship that have been dubbed Madzimbabwe 2016, Samuel Mleya, from the MSU told The Chronicle that the African tournament’s 2016 edition would be held in December at the MSU’s main campus in Gweru.

He said participants would be drawn from Togo, Ghana, Cameroon, Botswana, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Liberia, Nigeria, Namibia, among others.

“We’re here to officially launch Madzimbabwe 2016 Pan African Universities Debate Championship. This is an eight-year-old competition and tournament which is held annually. It has been previously hosted by South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Botswana and Namibia. The 2016 competitions are being hosted by Zimbabwe and at Midlands State University (MSU),” he said.

“We’re doing fund raising concerts because we want to raise about $ 70,000 by December. This will enable us to host more than 150 universities drawn from about 20 African countries with 1,500 participants.”

Mleya said the purpose of the debate was to promote dialogue in the event of conflict as violence and civil wars were retrogressive.

“The purpose of this interaction is that in 2008 when this was formed, the idea was to advocate for dialogue in peace building and conflicts. We want Africans to proffer African solutions to African problems and there’s a need to promote dialogue on the continent. This is the basis upon which the competition was founded,” he said.

“For Zimbabwe in particular, we’ve the highest adult literacy rate and we must show the continent and the entire nation that we can use this literacy to solve our day to day challenges.”