Robust debate is an essential ingredient in the drive to consolidate democracy in societies like South Africa's.

It was with some pride, then, that Cape Town hosted the World Schools Debating Championships 2012.

More than 420 of the world's best teenage debaters descended on the Mother City.

All but one of the competition's organising committee were UCT students or graduates, and UCT also hosted one of the early rounds of the competition.

In the final, the young team from Scotland defeated Wales.

Teams negotiated topics such as South Africa's use of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) instead of prosecuting apartheid criminals, whether feminist movements should seek a ban on pornography, and whether states should legally enshrine socio-economic rights.