MDC-T Senator wishes she could change the Bible

MDC-T Senator Sithembile Mlotshwa says she wishes that she could change the bible and get rid of the verse that says women should submit to their husbands as it made females more vulnerable.

Speaking during Senate, Mlotshwa said the recent jailing for 40 years of End Time Message Church leader Robert Gumbura for raping female congregants showed that women were no longer safe in church.  

She said some cultural and religious tendencies contributed to the further abuse of women.

"It seems we are no longer safe in churches.

"Maybe due to cultural tendencies that encourage subservience in women, at times women tend to suffer in silence. It seems it takes only the brave ones to break the silence, like these girls that are in the Gallery," Mlotshwa said.

"When two people are joined in matrimony, the Pastor will read a Verse that says, women must submit and men must love their wives. That submissive part makes women to suffer in silence because of listening to the Pastor's words of advice. I can see you are smiling, I wish if I could change the Bible, because you are to submit to whatever your husband brings to you."

Mlotshwa said she despised men who admires and engage in sex with minor.

"It is no surprise that these girls are raped by their very old grandfathers, who are married and they are not short of women because there are so many women around who would want to submit to them," Mlotshwa said.

"What are the reasons, why they are doing it, whether for money or for something else? Why do they rape these young girls? We need a paradigm shift, by the whole world, because it is happening everywhere, not only in Zimbabwe, not only in Africa. I do not know what would have happened to the mind of our men."