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Mbulelo Mpofu, Showbiz Reporter

TOASTMASTERS Zimbabwe is set to host the Division Z Speech contest virtually this Saturday with the aim of perfecting the art of speech and also enhancing the leadership abilities of its members.

Speech contests are a Toastmasters tradition. They are one of the many ways members can grow and perfect both their speaking and leadership skills.

Each year, thousands of Toastmasters compete in one or more of the following contests; – humorous, evaluation, table topics, tall rales and international speech contests.

Toastmasters Zimbabwe’s Carl Maswoswa said the contests are important for people to exploit their full potential in speech.

“The contests are an important part of the Toastmasters educational programme providing an opportunity for Toastmasters to learn by observing proficient speakers. Competition begins with club contests and the winners continue competing through the Area, Division, and District levels.

“Winners of the District-level International Speech Contest proceed to the Regional quarterfinals. Following Region quarterfinals, winners advance to the semifinals for a chance to take part in the World Championship of Public Speaking,” Maswoswa said.

According to Maswoswa, the winner of the competition will secure one of the 12 spots in the Southern Africa semifinals to be held virtually on May 14. From there, six counterparts out of 12 will advance to the final, which will take place virtually on May 28.

The competition will culminate in the 2022 World Championship of Public Speaking to be held in August 2022 in Nashville in Tennessee, United States, where finalists will compete for the World Championship title.

The reigning World Champion of Public Speaking, Verity Price, is Zimbabwean-born and based in Cape Town, South Africa. She is the sixth woman to win the World Championship in 80 years and the first person from Africa to win.

In her winning speech, “A Great Read”, Price spoke about how she felt that her life was a failure as a 40-year-old woman with no children, no husband, and living in her sister’s spare room. At the core of this winning speech is the story of how she was miserable, but her perspective changed when she read a letter from her late father, which implored her to write a new story if she was not satisfied with her current one, which she went ahead and did.

While many Zimbabweans may not be too familiar with Toastmasters International, the names of Jonah Mungoshi and Lloyd Mugabe may ring a bell. Mungoshi hit the limelight when he became the first in Zimbabwe and Africa to achieve a top-three place in the World Championships of Public Speaking in August 2002 in San Antonio, Texas. Mugabe won the Toastmasters Southern Africa International Speech Contest and went on to represent the region at the World Championships in Malaysia in August 2014.

The Toastmasters International Speech contest began in 1938 and it is the world’s largest speech contest, involving more than 30 000 participants from 145 countries. It culminates with the popular World Championship of Public Speaking held annually at the organization’s international convention.

Toastmasters Southern Africa boasts of 250 branches in Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Established in 1978 to help corporate and community groups in Southern Africa develop public speaking and leadership abilities, the branches include corporate partners such as Old Mutual, Standard Bank, Cimas, CBZ Holdings and MultiChoice, to mention a few.

–@eMKlass_49