South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has become embroiled in a controversy over the suspension of one of its senior researchers, Dr Anthony Turton - a move which one close science sector observer has described as a "disgrace".

Turton was prevented from delivering a controversial presentation on the quality and supply of water in South Africa at the CSIR's ‘Science Real and Relevant' conference, which took place on November 18 in Pretoria.

The CSIR said that it had withdrawn the presentation owing to some of the graphical content, but also asserted that some of its statements "could not be sufficiently substantiated".

The science council then moved to suspend Turton on November 21, pending an internal investigation, for raising the matter with the media in "contravention of organisational policy".

It noted, however, that it encouraged its researchers to publish their findings and had distributed the full report as part of the conference proceedings. The report (which is attached to this story) could also still be found on the CSIR's website.

Meanwhile, science journalist and former Journalism head of department of the University of Stellenbosch, Dr George Claassen asserted that the withdrawal of the presentation by the CSIR was an "absolute disgrace".

"This is a very serious encroachment on academic freedom and the right of scientists to announce their results, no matter how bad those results are for our view of things," he commented.

Claassen noted that academic and research freedom was protected under Section 16 of the constitution, which states that everyone has the right to freedom of expression, including academic freedom and freedom of scientific research.

He said that this was probably the first case where researchers and scientists were "forced to be politically correct" in a case where they found serious mistakes in society.

Further, Claassen said that this could also set a precedent for the future.

"For example, take HIV/Aids, if scientists find something that government does not like, are they going to silence those scientists because they are in the employment of a university, which is partially or mostly funded by government?" questioned Claassen.

RESEARCH FINDINGS
Turton's report highlighted that South Africa could be headed for a water supply and water quality crisis that could negatively impact on the economic growth and development of the country, as well as lead to social unrest.

The findings conflicted starkly with recent government assurances that South Africa was not facing a water crisis similar to the one prevailing in the electricity-supply sector.

The research report stated that the country had to change its current developmental trajectory and accept that the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (Asgisa) was "simply unobtainable", or had to rethink how it could "mobilise the science, engineering and technology capacity" of the country to support the Asgisa targets.

Turton indicated that, if nothing was done, "then we can say, with a reasonable degree of certainty, that social instability will grow and South Africa will slowly slide into anarchy and chaos". He even went so far as to draw comparisons with the recent xenophobic violence.

Further, the report also highlighted the skills shortage in the water infrastructure sector, specifically with regard to eutrophication and microcystins.

Turton explained that there were very few skilled people in these areas worldwide, as there was very little demand for these skills, apart from in China, which meant that it would be difficult for South Africa to import such skills, given the availability.

Turton's report also raised concerns on the impact of acid-mine drainage, endocrine disrupting chemicals and partially metabolised medicines such as antiretroviral medication, on South Africa's water quality.

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