MDC MP Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga yesterday stunned Parliament when she brought a baby to sit with MPs in the National Assembly.
BY VENERANDA LANGA
The MP slipped inside Parliament Building with the baby, without any hassles from the security department before taking her seat in the House. Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa and other excited MPs greeted the baby with smiles and handshakes.
Watch the video below:
The baby was quiet and did not create any scene in the House until Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda had completed the usual Parliament opening prayer.
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Mudenda summoned Misihairabwi-Mushonga to his desk to explain the presence of the baby in the National Assembly.
“This is meant to stress a particular point that this Parliament is not woman-friendly. Most women you are seeing in this House are still of child-bearing age, yet there is nothing in the Parliament Standing Rules and Orders (SRO)that allows female MPs to bring their babies for breastfeeding,” she said.
“There is nothing that allows female MPs to take time out and yet our Constitution allows us to take part in politics. As long as we are hamstrung, it will be difficult to look after our babies. I hope after having agreed with you that I am going to take the baby out after giving an explanation, you are going to ensure our SRO facilitates for female MPs to take care of their babies and take time to breastfeed them.”
Mudenda said Misihairabwi-Mushonga had raised an important point.
“We need to extend maternity leave for female MPs to take care of their children. If it is not possible for them to take long maternity leave, then the premises should enable them to have facilities for breastfeeding,” Mudenda said.
Misihairabwi-Mushonga then took the baby outside the House.
During the mid-term budget presentation in August this year, Misihairabwi-Mushonga shocked MPs when she brought in and displayed women’s secondhand underwear, saying Zimbabwean women had been reduced by economic circumstances to buying used underwear.
Last year, she brought sanitary pads into the National Assembly to illustrate that they were expensive and beyond the reach of many women who ended up resorting to unorthodox means during menstrual cycles.