HourlyHits Reporter
MEN who sexually abuse women must be jailed without the option of a fine, bail or appeal, Temba Mliswa said.
The independent legislator for Norton raised the sentiments in Parliament while debating on the Labour Amendment Bill currently before the august house. Mliswa argued that sexual molesters, particularly men, were taking advantage of loopholes in the law to get away with sexual abuse.
He argued that at the workplaces, women were being abused but some do not report the cases as they know the abuser would be released back to society and thereafter start harassing the woman who would have reported him.
Mliswa said: “The trial for accused persons in sexual abuse cases has to be fast-tracked because you would have injured a person. You go to report and that person is taken to court and is given and comes back to the company again.
“They victimize that person for reporting them. How are you protecting them? So, first there is no appeal, no bail given, fast-track straight to prison because if they go back to work the person who had reported will forever be victimized and it becomes difficult.”
He aded that most women who are sexually abused keep quiet because they know the boss will come back. As such, the laws needed tightening, argued Mliswa.
“The whole point of the law is not crime to consistently happen. Somebody must think twice that if I am going to sexually harass a woman I am going in for 10 years with no bail, no amnesty and no appeal.
“No wonder why from a political point of view – there is sexual harassment and most women do not want to go into politics because it is tainted. They already stigmatise other women in politics that aaah, munodanana nemashefu.”
Meanwhile, Mliswa said the country’s labour laws were weak and foreign investors were taking advantage of that to exploit locals.
“Investors must know that when you are coming to Zimbabwe, the worker must be respected. We respect their laws especially the Chinese and everybody else. One of the things that Chinese have said is that we do what we do because your laws are weak.
“When we are in China, no one can do what they want to do, they abide by their laws and the only thing that they can keep a country going is when you have laws which are clear, specific, laws which are not discriminatory, laws.”
