The article reviews the roles played by the Department of Education and the National Research Foundation in South Africa in defining the meaning of scholarship and in evaluating and funding it. The ideas that inform policy and practice include: the view that scholarship must serve the requirements of the national economy in becoming more globally competitive; attempts to manage and direct knowledge production; redressing apartheid's legacies; and a positivist discourse. I argue in favour of diversity in the pursuit of knowledge and greater consistency with national historical development. The tensions between science and technology and the humanities, and between disciplinary-based and applied scholarship are also highlighted. They lie at the heart of the status of "other knowledges" in relation to more "traditional" scholarship. The political and practical implications of these analyses are raised for debate.