1. 02 May 2018
When Government policies are in conflict with the law
By: Vita Angula
Friday the 22nd
April 2016 heralded a new era in the legal sphere that is Namibia as the
independence of the Judiciary was put to the test by a group of young men who brought their
party to court on an urgent basis for what it deemed as unfair expulsion and failure off the
party to abide by its own constitution.
Similarly but not directly related to the above mentioned I would like to bring forth a gross
oversight which is government circular 13 June 2013 (Ref no.13/18/5) a (v) signed by Deon
Van Zyl, Director: Benefits and Industrial Relations at the Office of the Prime Minister which
states, “(v) Note must be taken that competition for vacancies ‘ín the civil service’ have been
limited. Staff members must have completed their probation successfully and may only
compete for vacancies, which are on the next higher grade.
This proclamation is directly in conflict with the Namibia Public Service Act, 1995 (Act 13
0f 1995) 18. (3)which states that “In filling of any post in the Public Service or the
employment of any person additional to the establishment, only qualifications, experience,
level of training, relative merit, efficiency and suitability of the persons or staff members
being considered for appointment, promotion or transfer shall be taken into account”.
To juxtapose the two given examples of failure of organisations to abide by their own rules
brings forth a scenario where they put themselves at risk of lawsuits that they are likely to
lose in a fair and impartial court such as those of the Namibian Judiciary.
The purpose of this article is to bring to light the grave injustice government is dealing itself
and its employees.
Limiting competition for promotional posts decreases the pool of suitable qualified
candidates from which government can draw in filling vacancies. A direct result is that the
public Service does not in the end recruit the best available candidate.
One would wonder why the office of the Prime Minister would put such a self-defeating
policy in place and it would be safe to assume that there exists a fear of young graduates
competing and out-performing those who have already been in the system but have only
acquired years of experience and not ventured into the world of academics to improve their
qualifications and skills although the public Service does make grants available to its
employees to attain such qualifications.
Recruiting the best candidate for the job regardless of age or their current position in the
organisation is what many refer to as capacity-building. The strengthening of an organisation
by its human resources achieves the aim towards the end of strengthening the organisation

2. through fair recruitment policy which benefits the organisation itself and not the self-interest
of those within the organisation.
Capacity building, employee retention, freeing up financial resources , cutting wastage
through drawn out beaurocratic procedures, average work output and turnover and individual
work performance turnover are all aspects of the Namibia Civil Service that are likely to
improve if the Directive of employees only being allowed to compete to a level higher post is
done away with and there is equal chance for all to compete for available vacancies.
The disadvantage of not adhering to the Public Service Act, 1995 as quoted, “In filling of
any post in the Public Service or the employment of any person additional to the
establishment, only qualifications, experience, level of training, relative merit, efficiency and
suitability of the persons or staff members being considered for appointment, promotion or
transfer shall be taken into account” Is an impending lawsuit against the Office of the Prime
Minister and the Public Service which would be the extreme course of action to take if this
matter is not addressed. However, the other disadvantages of not adhering to the Act is that
the Public Service does not retain its most promising workforce as they leave government for
the private sector which has a reputation of better efficiency when it comes to service
delivery which is the core mandate of employees in the public service and which is also one
of the major weaknesses often quoted when opinions of government are sought.
It is now the right moment for the Government to rectify this ill-conceived policy of only
allowing civil servants to apply for the next grade post and adhere to the Public Service act as
it is in the best interest for the government to do so and allow a competitive environment
where the best man gets the job.
This would allow the government to attract and retain the required skills in realising its short-
term goals in the form of National Development Plans (NDP’s) and long-term goal of
realising vision 2030 through the human resources of the country.