LOCAL universities will battle for honours as the SAYWHAT Quiz and Debate series premieres on Digital Satellite Television, commonly abbreviated to DStv this weekend courtesy of the creative direction of Ian P Universal (PTY) in partnership with SAYWHAT.
This is the second year the producers of the quiz and debate series have brought these lunch hour productions to the small screens across Africa via DStv channel 319, StarSat 309 and OpenView HD 134.
The quiz show will be hosted by Panashe “The Dynamite” Chibatamoto on Saturdays while Nicole Natsai “.co.nicole” Chimanikire hosts the debate on Sundays for the coming 13 weekends.
All the shows, which will feature 20 university teams, have been allocated the lunch hour slot, — at 1200hrs across the channels.
The head producer-cum-creative director of the shows, Ian Venganai told NewsDay Life & Style that this year’s edition will offer big prizes such as the Education For All — Anhad Edutrain Solutions (Pty) Ltd India-sponsored scholarships to study in India for the winners.
“SAYWHAT considers the National Universities Quiz Competitions and the SASI Debate Competitions as flagship events which reach out and benefit multitudes of young people in Zimbabwe and the Southern African region,” he noted.
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“The two events are of strategic importance in the context of providing accurate information to young people on a broad range of health issues as well as to stir debate and critical thinking on matters that relate to young people’s health in general and sexual and reproduction health and rights in particular.”
Venganai said their collaboration with SAYWHAT had proven that Zimbabwe has the talent and skills to produce world-class content that can be exported across the continent.
“The project took a lot of planning and great support from different stakeholders, but most importantly an incredibly hardworking talented team that made it possible to film two tournaments back-to-back in under a week,” he said.
“To see these two shows, go for broadcast in less than two months after principal recording is groundbreaking. I am proud of my entire team together with Premier Sounds, SAYWHAT Organisation, Swedish Embassy in Zimbabwe, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, SEAL and all the institutions that participated including the students themselves.”