Scientists and NGOs have launched a petition calling for the reinstatement of a respected South African water expert who has been suspended from his job at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Anthony Turton, a fellow of CSIR, was suspended after criticising both the council and the government for failing to address the impending water crisis in the country. The petitioners have called his suspension an "attempted silencing of the truth about South Africa's water crisis" and a "major attack on the constitutional right to freedom of expression".