Within the broad theoretical context provided by debates on the South African education reforms and the civic engagement agenda in higher education, this article focuses on service learning in higher education and portrays complex relationships between the service-learning office and different existing structures within and outside the University of Technology. The article argues that such a web of relationships could create confusion in terms of locating and managing service-learning in the university. The article demonstrates the interviewees' confusion with regard to an ideal location for service learning in a merged University of Technology, stimulates discussion and calls for guidance and sustainable partnerships between the university and government departments that are responsible for community development. (Contains 1 figure.)