02/02/2026
Around two years ago, we embarked on a journey to bring WUDC back to South Africa and, by extension, to the wider Pan-African community. Today, we celebrate the culmination of that dream and thank the global debate community for its support. We now set our sights on 2028 and begin preparations to welcome all debaters to Tshwane (after a short rest).
We would like to acknowledge the Brazil WUDC Bid team’s monumental effort and thank them for pushing us to engage more deeply with the community's needs. We wish them the very best.
Additionally, we would like to thank the CAs of our 2027 bid, Bea B. Legaspi, Boemo Delano Phirinyane and Kat Cheng, who formed the bedrock of the bid. Even though life and career demands mean they are no longer on this journey, we could not have done this without them.
We are also grateful to our current CA and TAB team, Klaudia Maciejewska, Matthew Toomey, Mubarrat Wassey, Maison Pieterson Maphosa and Simran Makwane for their continued work to make debating excellent and accessible.
To our advisors, thank you for your tireless efforts in shaping our policies and guiding our hand. To everyone who advocated for our bid, we are eternally grateful.
To the global debate community, we know we have been reaching out a lot, and now we want to focus on listening, learning, and supporting your needs. Your voices matter, and we are committed to growing and building together.
Lastly, we commit with full hearts and absolute conviction to delivering a WUDC that is transformative, radically accessible, and unforgettable.
After the storm, the jacaranda blooms, and so too will this WUDC, as a testament to our resilience, our community, and our shared future in debating.
P.S. Matt is still sleeping, unaware of the bid result as we post this. He is going to have quite a morning.
