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Urban-Rural Linkage Community Engagement Project expands to KZN

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Unisa's Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL) has been running the Rural-Urban Linkage Community Engagement Project since 2021. Initially, the project focused mainly on small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape, aiming to link township- and rural-based SMMEs with well-established corporates and businesses.

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Letlhogonolo Marumolwa, Director: Business Intelligence; Dr Joyce Myeza, Regional Director: KZN; Prof Pumela Msweli, SBL CEO and Executive Dean; and Morafe Tabane, SBL

A series of workshops kicked off in May 2025, marking the project's expansion into the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Region. The first session at the Unisa Durban Campus, was coordinated by the SBL team in collaboration with the KZN government to benefit the SMMEs based in this province.

The team was led by Prof Pumela Msweli, SBL CEO and Executive Dean, who also developed the project. The initiative fosters partnerships and skills transfer between rural entrepreneurs and urban businesses. The broader goal is for rural communities to create self-help projects that will eventually be part of an urban-rural value chain.

The project also seeks to capacitate SMMEs and local and provincial governments in intra-African trade and sound governance. Over the past few years, the project focused on communities in Gingindlovu (KZN) and Luthengele (Port St Johns, Eastern Cape). This year, a decision was made to strengthen the project’s capacity to have impactful outcomes by involving local and provincial government structures. The endeavour to involve the provincial government bore fruit when the SBL secured an appointment to visit the KZN government earlier this year, resulting in an initiative to hold a series of workshops.

The first workshop was just the beginning. The SBL has a series of sessions for different parts of the country. The workshops aim to transfer data analysis and data management skills to produce research outputs in collaboration with the KZN government. A key focus is using Power BI to transform raw data into actionable insights, supporting better service delivery and informed decision-making for rural development programmes. In the upcoming workshops, participants will receive hands-on training in building dashboards, tracking key performance indicators and visualising trends, skills essential for policy development and strategic planning.

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Workshop attendees

This collaboration represents a significant move towards enhancing data-driven governance, ensuring that rural areas receive focused, evidence-based attention. The SBL plays a vital role in supporting government capacity through technology and innovation.

Moreover, the community engagement projects coordinated by the SBL make it possible for engaged scholarship to be realised for rural communities, advancing Unisa’s vision of being the African university in the service of humanity.

* By Siyabonga Seme, Manager: Communication and Marketing, KZN Region

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Publish date: 2025-06-03 00:00:00.0

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