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The Human Sciences Research Council's (HSRC) report on Saving Zimbabwe - an agenda for democratic peace, released at a media briefing yesterday (Thursday, 10 July 2008) is part of the HSRC's endeavour to bring credible scientific evidence to bear on issues of immediate public concern and purpose to South Africa and Africa at large. At this juncture, Zimbabwe is one of these urgent issues. From the outset, the HSRC was aware of the myriad sensitivities around the Zimbabwe situation. This compelled its researchers to go an extra mile to ensure that facts and figures are tested for accuracy and veracity. One needs to go through the report to note that the report is heavily documented by a total of 173 footnotes citing sources arising from qualitative and quantitative methods. The report made recommendations in six broad areas of concern to Zimbabwe, Africa and the international community. The question of "retaliatory" violence involving the MDC, although a single point in the broad area of Zimbabwe's culture of violence, expectedly attracted a great deal of interest among all the journalists who attended the media conference. The HSRC researchers referred them to the relevant section where it is discussed, and gave them some names of people they can contact to follow up on some of the issues of curiosity and concern. A television station last night stated in a broadcast that the report claimed that "the MDC is arming itself". This was a distortion that ignored details within the policy report, discussions at the press conference, the media release, and follow-up questions with journalists, including their own. The HSRC would like to distance itself from any impression that the report claims that the "MDC is arming" itself. We refer our readers to pages 15-17 of the report, where the issue of the MDC and violence is discussed. What appears in these pages is a more nuanced scientific discourse than simple "propaganda". Interested parties who read this section will appreciate the wealth, diversity and balanced character of the discussion, which forms a small section of the report and is backed up by 17 footnotes. Notably, most media stations highlighted other recommendations and succeeded in capturing the richness of the research and debate that the report has brought into the public arena. As a bold attempt in the critical area of early warning research, the report has served its purpose. The aim of the HSRC report was to serve its public and moral purpose as a public institution by warning that there is an imminent danger of an escalation of the low intensity warfare already existing in Zimbabwe and that the country may slide further into the kind of violence whose footprints the report has identified. Download the report  For more information, or to set up interviews, contact: Ina van der Linde
Media Liaison, HSRC
Tel: +27 (0)12 302 2024
Cell phone: 082 331 0614
E-mail: ivdlinde@hsrc.ac.za
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