The team from Thengwe High performed very well during the recent first round of the National Schools Moot Court Competition. A moot court is a role-play exercise in which participants play the role of lawyers in a fictional court case.

All secondary schools in South Africa were invited to enter a team of two pupils. A fictional problem involving a constitutional issue was set and the teams were expected to write two short essays setting out the opposing sides of the case, and the essays were evaluated by a panel of experts.

The best nine submissions in each of the nine provinces were identified and the selected pupils were invited to participate in person in the provincial oral rounds in the nine provinces. The best four teams from each province participated in the national oral rounds in Pretoria from 27 to 29 April.

The two provincial winning teams with the highest scores, Knowledge Dzumba and Rohula Bilankulu from Thengwe High School, and Fezeka Mehlomakhulu and Nicole Dunn from Springfield Convent School in Cape Town, competed against each other to determine an overall winning team in the final round on 29 April 2012 at the Constitutional Court. The winning team was Thengwe High School and Rohula Bilankulu was the best speaker during the contest.

The Deputy Minister of Basic Education, Mr Enver Surty, addressed the audience at the opening of the competition at the University of Pretoria, and the Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Mr Andries Nel, was the speaker at the final round on 29 April at the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg.

The moot court is a joint venture of the Universities of Pretoria, Venda, the Western Cape,  and Cape Town, the South African Constitutional Literacy and Service Initiative (CLASI), Democratic Governance and Rights Unit, the Departments of Justice and Constitutional Development and Basic Education, the South African Human Rights Commission and the Foundation for Human Rights. The competition is aimed at creating greater awareness of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and the values that it embodies.

In the semi-final oral round of the competition that will take place on 27 to 29 April, Limpopo will be represented by Thengwe High, Capricorn High, DZJ Mtebule High and the Khanyisa Education Centre.