Proposed bill aims to protect rights of nursing mothers

to the office of Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, they propose that it becomes an offence to interfere with, or stop a woman from breast-feeding a child in a public place.

Joe Maila, spokesman for Motsoaledi, welcomed the campaign, saying that the ministry was in support of any call that promoted breast-feeding as “this form of feeding saves lives”.

He lambasted critics of breast-feeding: “The nation should be angry and be ashamed of those people who are discouraging mothers to breast-feed their babies.

“We welcome the proposal and we will look at it and see if it’s something that needs to be pursued further. As government, we fully support breast-feeding as it has been proven as one of the interventions that will reduce this country’s infant mortality… it is the way to go. I think criticism of public breast-feeding is unwarranted and absurd,” he said.

This week, a Rustenburg mother, Sizile Makola expressed outrage at people who opposed public breast-feeding after she was recently told by a private hospital to breast-feed behind a curtain to avoid upsetting other patients.

According to the proposed bill – which has been drafted by an international human rights and constitutional lawyer – interfering with breast-feeding would include placing limitations on certain areas or asking women to shield themselves from prying eyes.

The lawyer who helped draft the bill, Helen Ilitha, was instrumental in a Scottish campaign that led to discrimination of women who were nursing in public being criminalised.

Anél Olsson, one of the founders of the group, started campaigning for public breast-feeding three months ago. She said the group of diverse middle class women was organised following the “brutal affront by the media” about public breast-feeding.

Olsson said just as many had internalised racism and sexism, women had also “internalised the patriarchal construct that a breast was only welcome when it promised sex”.

She said in many public places including restaurants, shopping malls and public gatherings, women were “actively harassed and told to leave or cover up” simply because they were breast-feeding their babies.

“Personally, I’ve been down that road myself. I was too embarrassed to breast-feed my first baby in public because of this constant harassment. I would be told to go to a toilet to breast-feed him,” she said.