“When Mthunzi speaks everyone listens,” screamed a Sowetan headline on an article about then 18-year-old Ashley Mthunzi, who had wowed an audience during a school debate competition in Soweto.

Mthunzi, a then standard 10 (now grade 12) pupil at Reasoma High School in Protea, Soweto, had received a well-deserved standing ovation after he had meticulously debated how democracy can still thrive in poor countries...