The Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria is proud to announce that one of its TuksLaw mooting teams triumphed in the 6th African Regional Round of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition on 9 June 2017 at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria. 

The University of Pretoria team represented South Africa in the competition. The team consisted of first speaker Tebello Mosoeu (second year BA Law), second speaker Ruvimbo Samanga (third year BA Law) and Coach Sewela Masie (final year LLB student). 

The other participants were Makerere University (Uganda), University of Juba (South Sudan), Obafemi Awolowo University (Nigeria) and University of Nigeria Nsukka (Nigeria). The competition had judges from the Department of Trade and Industry, the South African National Space Agency, the Botswana High Court and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

After the preliminary rounds were completed, it was the University of Pretoria and Makerere University (Uganda) that made it into the finals. When the dust settled it was the team from UP that came tops, as the overall winner of the African Regionals Rounds. Immediately after announcing the overall winners, an award ceremony was held, which saw the UP team winning the Award for Best Memorials (written submissions), and Ruvimbo Samanga won Best Oralist.

As the African Champions the University of Pretoria will now represent Africa in Adelaide Australia, from 25 to 29 September, battling against  the winning teams from North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific during the International Astronautical Congress, for the title of world Champion. The team has been preparing and has already submitted memorials for the world rounds on 26 July 2017.

TuksLaw's best wishes accompany our team to 'Down Under' in September.