Prof. Monwabisi Ralarala

uring the year under review, the Faculty has been engaged in concerted efforts to connect its research, as well as teaching and learning, to Community Engagement and the Scholarship of Engagement. These efforts have been facilitated by our committed students and staff. As evidence of these practices, our Honours student (Aidan Africa) was selected as one of two winners of the Society of South African Geographers (SSAG) Outstanding Honours Research Award for 2022. Mr Africa’s Honours project, titled: ‘Sense of Place: Gentrification experiences of Bo-Kaap’s long-term residents’ (supervised by Prof. Daniel Tevera) was focused on the unique Bo-Kaap Cape Muslim community, who remained in the area, despite Apartheid forced removals. Additionally, the Faculty has continued to reposition itself, in respect of its partnership with communities, which has been evidenced by Dr Lorato Mokwena’s award winning documentary work, titled: ‘Broken String’, which relates historical, as well as the present injustices that the Bushman people in South Africa continue to endure. Such rich achievements (precisely the Broken String: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=km#search/ lorato/FMfcgzGqPpbdkJGnflTWfZDpCNMShVrW), not only unveil appreciation and cultivation of scholarship around communities, whose human, cultural, and linguistics rights are violated, but also speak truth to power, with a view to reshape and change people’s lives. Consequently, I consider this research-based engagement, the lifeblood of community engagement.