Qualification for paid maternity leave

I have been working for a company for four months and am pregnant and about to deliver in four weeks to come. I have applied for maternity leave but the HR Manager is telling me that the leave will be unpaid because I don’t qualify for a paid maternity leave. Is this HR’s position legally correct? Does the law deny the employees with a short period of service the right to a paid maternity leave?
MS, Mwanza

Section 29(1) of the Employment and Labour Relations Act disentitles an employee with less than 6 months of service to the employer from getting paid maternity leave. If you have worked for the employer for less than 6 months, you are entitled to a maternity leave but the leave shall be unpaid. However, this condition that an employee with less than 6 months period of service is not entitled to a paid maternity leave does not apply to an employee with a renewed contract. If the employee has worked for the same employer before on an expired contract and the contract has been renewed, the six months’ threshold for paid maternity leave shall not apply. Secondly, if the employment is seasonal, in the sense that the employee is only serving for a certain period in a year, then such an employee is entitled to a maternity leave regardless of the fact that she has served the employer for a period less than six months.