isiXhosa Oratory Competition. PRG Form is a meeting place of many activities. Here Paul Roos Gymnasium learners exercise their prowess in the art of the spoken word. The need for the development of an isiXhosa oratory competition was identified after discussions with ENSafrica. ENSafrica is the official sponsor of PRG Forum. The competition is for high school learners.

Paul Roos immediately reached out to its neighbouring schools. With the help of Rhenish Girls’ High, a teacher’s workshop was initiated and hosted at Paul Roos Gymnasium. isiXhosa teachers from Kayamandi Secondary School, Makapula Secondary School, Calling Academy, Rhenish Girls’ High, Afrikaanse Hoër Meisieskool, the German International School Cape Town, Paul Roos Gymnasium and Bishops Diocesan College attended the teacher’s workshop. They discussed competition categories, evaluation criteria, training of learners and also efficiently judging isiXhosa oratory speeches.

IsiXhosa as subject

Thereafter a wide array of schools with isiXhosa as subject was also invited to enter for the first isiXhosa oratory competition. The name is Masithethe! (“let’s talk”). PRG’s vision for Masithethe! is to promote multi-language use in South Africa. Furthermore it is to encourage learners to speak isiXhosa. PRG wants to provide a platform on which isiXhosa speakers of any level can inform, entertain and convince an audience.

Paul Roos received 87 speech entries from eight schools from the Western Cape. These schools are Hoër Meisieskool Bloemhof, Calling Academy, Grootte Schuur High School, Makapula Secondary School, Rhenish Girls’ High, St Cyprians High School, Kayamandi Secondary School and Paul Roos Gymnasium. The competition will be held on Saturday 14 May. Teachers who attended the Masithethe! workshop also volunteered as judges. Two special judges from the University of Stellenbosch will be judging the final round of the competition. Masithethe! is honoured to receive Dr Zameka Sijadu (Faculty of African Language) along with Dr Simthembile Xeketwana (Faculty of Education) at Masithethe!