This was the pleasant task of a team of four Grade 11 boys from Clifton School, this year’s winners of the increasingly popular quiz organised annually by the Durban office of audit, advisory, tax and accounting firm, BDO.

The presentation took place in the Isibonelo school library which is stocked with only English books but is just half full.

The victorious Clifton Team – named the Redeem Team – was made up of Chad Dorkin, Muhammed Vally, Gordon Wang and Uzayr Jadwat. They won the title of champions from amongst the 54 teams that competed in the round-robin competition earlier this year.

Acting as their spokesperson at the handover ceremony, Vally said that the quiz was not only a fantastic learning experience but an opportunity to help a school like Isibonelo build up its library and provide the latest educational books for the benefit of their learners.

The principal of the school, Mboniseni Khalala, thanked everyone for attending and expressed his appreciation to BDO and Books & Books for organising the initiative. He gave special thanks to the Clifton team for winning and providing much-needed new educational material for Isibonelo’s growing library.

Sally Juckes, Audit and Assurance partner at the Durban office of BDO, said that the objective of the inter-school quiz was to broaden the thinking of the participants, to expand their knowledge and encourage them to strive for excellence.

“These goals are also built into BDO’s professional creed and we are confident that the donation of these books to Isibonelo will motivate their learners in the same way,” she said.

Janine O’Connor from Books & Books, who co-sponsored the books said that a good library needed a wide selection of books and subject matter and that it was important for new publications to be added regularly.

The books selected for Isibonelo’s library comprised fiction, non-fiction, reference books and readers – all in English - and selected especially for learners in Grade 6 to 12 which are the grades taught at the school.

Sanele Nkosi, a former Umlazi resident and BDO bursary student, and now a qualified chartered accountant working at BDO’s Durban office, offered some words of inspiration to the learners. He encouraged them to work hard and strive to do their best so that they, too, could achieve their dreams and reach the highest level of their chosen profession, as he had done.

About 50 Isibonelo learners from Grade 8 to Grade 12 attended the ceremony. Two of them provided entertainment in the form of poetry readings. Spheshile Mncube, who is in Grade 8, recited a poem about xenophobia and Grade 10 student, Lindiwe Ndlovu, read a poem she had written herself.

Sanele Mzobe, a Grade 12 learner at the school, concluded the ceremony with a vote of thanks, saying that that they were very grateful that Clifton had chosen them as the recipients of the books for their library. He added that he would like a team from Isibonelo to compete in the quiz next year as they had participated in debates with several local schools this year, beating all but one. They also beat well known private school, St Andrews in Grahamstown, when they visited Durban.

Clifton has won the BDO Inter-School Quiz three times in the six years that the competition has been running. Their relationship with Isibonelo Secondary dates back to 2001 and this is the second time they have chosen the school as the recipient of the books prize.

Up to six teams of four Grade 10 or 11 learners from schools in greater Durban and Pietermaritzburg are eligible to take part in this annual contest. They compete in a round-robin competition, answering a series of general knowledge questions, with the top two teams going through to the final round.

For more information and to participate in next year’s quiz, call Sally Juckes on +27 10 060-6700.

For more information, visit the BDO website.