WHENEVER an employer has a job opportunity requiring assistance from an individual person in carrying out the employer’s business or trade, that employer is required to hire an individual person to fill the position that exists in the employer’s business or organisation, whether on a temporary or permanent basis.

The recruitment process of an employee should be done in a fair and transparent manner by setting necessary job requirements by the employer that an ideal candidate should meet.  

The law requires that an employer be fair in its dealings with a job applicant, even though an employment relationship has not yet been formally established.

This is so because the law and, in particular, the Namibian Constitution requires that all persons be treated equally without discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, colour, ethnic origin, religion, creed, social, or economic status. In terms of the Labour Act, an employee is defined as an individual other than an independent contractor who works for another person and who receives or is entitled to receive remuneration for that work.  That means all available job opportunities should be open to qualified people without discrimination based on the above-mentioned grounds of discrimination.

The Labour Act was established to regulate, among others, the protection of employees from unfair labour practices, the prohibition of discrimination, and the entrenchment of fundamental labour rights. According to Talentlyft, a recruitment and marketing agency, job requirements are a must-have that an employer is looking for in a candidate for a job position. It says job requirements are not just a list of specific qualifications, such as education, knowledge, and skills needed for a particular position, but are a great opportunity to attract the best candidates to successfully do the job on offer. 

It helps to set expectations for both employer and employee and to ensure that qualified people apply for the job on offer.  It is puzzling to note that some employer representatives, including the state functionaries, are setting unrealistic job requirements silently, which has the potential to discriminate against other job applicants. This unrealistic requirement by representatives is a demand from job applicants to produce political parties’ membership cards before they are considered for employment purposes. Such propensity has been in existence for many years, albeit done secretly and in silence. It started with some political party leaders, especially those from the ruling party, requiring job applicants to show they belong to the ruling party before they considered job opportunities. 

Over two decades, we have heard from the powers that be that they would reserve certain “jobs for comrades”. That means only job
applicants who proved they subscribed to a certain political party in charge of either the national, regional, or local authority government would be
preferred to take up job applications positions. All these employer representatives or state functionaries are demanding applicants show they hold membership cards of a specific political party; without them, such job applicants run the risk of being discriminated
against for occupying job positions
 despite being formally qualified for jobs
in the national government, regional council, or local authority. 

Recently, a cousin asked me how he could obtain the ruling party’s membership card. I asked him why he needed it so urgently, and he told me it was for job purposes in the government. 

I then told him there are no such job requirements and that whoever is demanding it is violating the supreme law of our country.

Last Sunday, while at the police station, I saw a young lady asking for her ruling party membership card to be certified by the police, and out of curiosity, I asked her what the motive was, and she told me it was for the purpose of applying for a job opportunity at the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN). 

I asked her further whether it was listed as a requirement, and she stated that sometimes it helps if one enclosed a political party membership card.  Such secret job requirements are wrongly conducted by employers, as this does not form part of a job requirement in Namibia other than a means of discriminating against others.

Therefore, such practices must be condemned in the strongest terms, as they are nothing but acts of discrimination that have no authority within the Namibian legal framework. 

*Lucas Tshuuya is a legal practitioner from Onaanda village in Uukwambi district.