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Can you do research on Zimbabwe’s public universities?

Have you ever travelled thousands of miles to conduct research and returned empty-handed? I have.

In 2018, when I was studying towards a masters degree in public administration at the University of Bergen in Norway, I got on a KLM flight and left for Zimbabwe. My mission was to collect data for my thesis, ‘There Is a Spy on the Campus: Academic freedom under Zimbabwe’s watchful government’.

In retrospect, I must have been crazy to think I could freely research such a topic in Zimbabwe. But I thought maybe things were different.

A new government had recently taken over from long-time dictator Robert Mugabe and was promising a break from the past, a ‘new dispensation’. It was an opportune time to study academic freedom … so many things had changed. Or had they?

These were the questions my research sought to answer. However, preliminary answers regarding the state of academic freedom in Zimbabwe did not come from my research: they came from my engagement with authorities at the University of Zimbabwe (my case study).

Armed with everything necessary to conduct research in a public institution (my school ID, a recommendation letter from my school and one from my supervisor), I approached the appropriate authorities at the university and sought clearance.

Long story short, the clearance never came, despite numerous efforts. To me, this was a clear indication that in Zimbabwe, free inquiry – a major component of academic freedom – was not so free, that not much had changed after the fall of Mugabe, especially with regard to academic freedom.

With my understanding of the academic freedom situation somewhat clearer but close to US$2,000 poorer, I packed my bags and returned to Norway with no data to show my thesis supervisor. I did eventually complete my research after finding ways to circumvent authorities. This, according to academics, is the story of many researchers investigating public institutions in Zimbabwe.

The legal albatross around researchers’ necks

The process for getting clearance to study a public institution can be “quite onerous”, said Professor Eldred Masunungure, a lecturer in the department of governance and public management at the University of Zimbabwe and one of the country’s top academics. This is especially the case if you are a foreign researcher or a local researcher working with someone from outside the country. In such cases, getting clearance can take up to six months, even for students pursuing higher post-graduate degrees.

But getting clearance is not difficult for foreigners only, Masunungure said. “It’s equally cumbersome for Zimbabweans wanting to do research in or about public institutions, especially central government, and the big albatross around the necks of researchers is the Official Secrets Act (OSA).”

Clearance is not a given

According to Masunungure, public institutions across the board use the law in a way that frustrates researchers. They claim they are bound by the law and can only give a researcher permission to study their organisation if he or she gets clearance from higher authorities, even if the topic under study is ‘innocuous’. Getting clearance, Masunungure said, takes so much time that you just give up. “You need a reservoir of patience and humility to pursue the clearance letter or clearance document.”

He said the OSA should be amended so that there is some flexibility in its application.

For Dr Pedzisai Ruhanya, a media and political guru at the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute, it is all about finding ways to circumvent authorities when researching public institutions in Zimbabwe. He calls the political system in Zimbabwe “a competitive authoritarian regime”.

“These regimes are not transparent; they are not open. They would want to understand your ideology and where you are coming from before they let you conduct research,” he said.

Operating in a closed system does not stop research, however. Ruhanya said in some of the toughest authoritarian regimes people still find ways to engage in scholarly work – “even the Soviet Union had people conducting research”.

When it comes to Zimbabwe, Masunungure agrees with Ruhanya. “Most people resort to alternative ways of getting data to circumvent the bureaucratic procedures that one has to undergo to get official clearance,” Masunungure said.

Are researchers a threat to national security?

According to Masunungure, authorities have a habit of putting researchers into categories. “In the eyes of the government, there are certain individuals or categories that are suspicious. When they apply for clearance, they should expect a no, or no response or a ‘wait’ and then you wait until you give up.”

Masunungure said: “Depending on how they characterised your research in the past and depending on the topic that you seek to research, you will be treated as suspect or the topic as something akin to a national security threat. ‘National security’ is defined very broadly so that virtually anything can fall under the umbrella or definition.”

Masunungure said that, if you are researching sanctions, for instance, and you are known to have critically questioned their impact on Zimbabwe’s economic development in the past (the government maintains that sanctions are responsible for most of Zimbabwe’s economic woes), you may not get access to the data you need to objectively assess how sanctions have impacted the country, which will most likely undermine your research.

He said the clearance process and the way it is implemented has far-reaching consequences for academic freedom.

He referred to the process and its requirements as “hurdles that impinge on the capacity of researchers to do their work”. Due to such impediments, “If you only get access to, say, civic society or the private sector or to other academics but not to the public sector or public institutions, you will not be able to come up with adequate or objective data to critically and fairly analyse the situation.”

What does the constitution say?

The right to freely seek information is captured clearly in Zimbabwe’s constitution under freedom of expression. According to chapter 4, section 61 (1), “every person has the right to freedom of expression, which includes (a) freedom to seek, communicate ideas and other information (b) freedom of artistic expression and scientific research and creativity and (c) academic freedom.”

While the constitution seems clear that researchers should pursue their academic endeavours freely, laws such as the OSA are used to curtail their academic freedom.

This is not uncommon in Zimbabwe where, over the years, many laws affecting human rights have been argued to be beyond the authority of the new constitution while others are deliberately applied wrongly to suit the objectives of authorities.

Zimbabwe is, thus, a country where the existence of a right in the constitution rarely means it will be protected or that appropriate recourse can be sought if it is violated. This is especially so if the right is political in nature.

Zachariah Mushawatu is a freelance journalist. He completed a masters thesis on academic freedom at the University of Bergen, Norway, in 2020 and is also the former national spokesperson of the Zimbabwe National Students Union, or ZINASU.