Reimagining justice through Unisa’s engaged scholarship

What happens when legal scholarship moves beyond the lecture hall and confronts the realities of the communities it is meant to serve?

That question was at the heart of the University of South Africa’s (Unisa) inaugural College of Law Engaged Scholarship Symposium, held at the Muckleneuk Campus on 22 September 2026.

Bringing together legal scholars and practitioners, the symposium examined how universities can move knowledge from theory into practice and how law and African scholarship can contribute to justice, human dignity and meaningful social change.

The discussions connected engaged scholarship to Unisa’s Catalytic Niche Areas (CNAs), the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), South Africa’s National Development Plan and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

Former Head of the Hawks and retired Lieutenant-General Adv Dr Godfrey Lebeya delivered the keynote address, placing the relationship between law, policy, knowledge and lived experience at the centre of his remarks.

He challenged scholars and practitioners to consider the public purpose of law and the consequences when legal systems become disconnected from the people they are intended to protect.

“Law fulfils its highest purpose only when it advances human dignity,” he said.

His remarks set the tone for a symposium that sought to broaden the understanding of scholarship beyond academic publication and theoretical debate, towards knowledge that can respond to challenges experienced by communities.

Delivering the opening address on behalf of Professor Mpfariseni Budeli-Nemakonde, Executive Dean of the College of Law (CLAW), Professor Tshepo Aubrey Manthwa, Head of Tuition in Teaching and Learning, situated the symposium within Unisa’s broader commitment to research, innovation and community impact.

Manthwa said communities should not be regarded simply as subjects or recipients of academic research, but as active contributors to the production of knowledge.

“Collaboration is not about just conducting research on communities. It’s about co-creating knowledge with them,” he said.

He linked this approach to Unisa’s Catalytic Niche Areas, which are intended to harness the University’s expertise to address real-world challenges while contributing to the United Nations’ 17 SDGs.

Speaking against the backdrop of Heritage Month, Manthwa also encouraged delegates to consider heritage as something that continues to shape the society institutions help build, rather than simply something inherited from the past.

“Our heritage is not just what we preserve from the past,” he said, linking heritage to an ongoing commitment to justice, human dignity and equality.

For Manthwa, this is where engaged scholarship assumes its public significance.

It requires universities to reconsider traditional relationships between researchers and communities and create partnerships in which communities participate in shaping knowledge and developing solutions.

Such an approach also raises questions about conventional academic structures, including short research cycles and measures of academic success that may not fully capture the longer-term value of community engagement.

It asks a further question: What happens to knowledge once it has been produced?

“Where innovation cannot live is on a shelf,” Manthwa said, emphasising the need to translate research into practices and interventions that can contribute to meaningful social change.

The symposium’s panel discussion brought these ideas into sharper focus through contemporary questions of justice and public safety.

The discussion was facilitated by Professor Juanida Horne, Director of Unisa’s School of Criminal Justice.

Honourable Dr Bandile Masuku, Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Community Safety, was asked about gender-based violence and femicide following the discovery of nine women’s bodies in Ekurhuleni.

A question on whether the death penalty could address such violence prompted a broader discussion about punishment, prevention and the effectiveness of criminal justice responses.

Masuku questioned whether capital punishment alone could address the underlying causes of violence. He referred to African countries where the death penalty remains in place and questioned whether its existence had, by itself, eliminated such violence. He distinguished Botswana from the comparison because of its smaller scale.

The exchange shifted the discussion beyond punishment towards the wider systems needed to prevent violence, protect communities and strengthen public safety.

Whistleblower protection was also raised during the panel, bringing into focus the responsibilities of institutions towards people who expose wrongdoing.

The discussion highlighted the relationship between accountability and the conditions that enable people to speak out, while illustrating how legal scholarship can engage with questions that have direct consequences for communities.

At the centre of these conversations were broader questions about the production of legal knowledge.

Whose experiences shape the questions researchers ask? Whose voices are included? And how can scholarship contribute to solutions that communities can meaningfully use?

These questions challenge scholars to consider not only what they know, but also how knowledge is produced, whose perspectives inform it and how it is ultimately experienced beyond academic spaces.

CLAW’s own projects provided practical examples of how engaged scholarship can move from theory into community-focused work.

Tshikollo ya Setshabeng, an interdisciplinary engaged scholarship initiative, connects law researchers and practitioners with community members and people with experience of the criminal justice system.

The initiative focuses on the social reintegration of parolees, probationers and ex-offenders, while addressing stigma and seeking to reduce repeat offending.

Its work demonstrates that justice does not necessarily end when a sentence has been completed. Successful reintegration also depends on communities being part of the process.

The Unisa Law Clinic provided another example through its pro bono work with underprivileged communities.

Through the clinic, legal expertise is taken beyond the classroom and connected directly with people who may otherwise struggle to access legal assistance.

The College also showcased research examining the decriminalisation of prostitution, demonstrating how legal scholarship can interrogate complex social realities and examine how different legal frameworks affect rights, safety and justice.

Other areas highlighted the breadth of CLAW’s interdisciplinary engagement, including feminist, womanist and Bosadi theorisation, as well as work connected to aviation and aeronautical studies.

The presentations, facilitated by Thabang Bogopa, Engaged Scholarship Coordinator in CLAW, covered community safety, criminal justice, social reintegration, law and human rights, and legal education.

Together, the projects illustrated different ways in which academic expertise can engage with communities and contribute to understanding and addressing social challenges.

The symposium ultimately placed the role of the university itself under scrutiny.

It challenged scholars to reconsider what counts as impact, who participates in producing knowledge and what happens when scholarship leaves the lecture hall and enters the communities it seeks to serve.

For CLAW, engaged scholarship is not simply about producing knowledge. It is also about creating relationships through which knowledge can be tested, shared and translated into responses to real social challenges.

The inaugural symposium therefore returned to the question at the centre of the day’s discussions: How can knowledge serve the communities from which society’s most urgent questions emerge?

For a university committed to research, teaching and societal impact, it is a question that places justice, human dignity and community participation at the centre of the relationship between scholarship and society.

* By Lesego Chiloane, Journalist, Department of Institutional Advancement

Photography by Victor Malatji, Journalist Intern, Department of Institutional Advancement