Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation has ordered the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform to permanently employ 56 workers under its land reform directorate.
The workers are hired to administer a communal land registration project in several regions on a contractual basis. The employees dragged the land reform ministry to the Labour Court in 2018, demanding permanent employment.
The judgement, handed down by labour commissioner Ndateelela Hamukwaya on 22 April this year, which The Namibian has seen, ordered the ministry to permanently employ the workers who were on contract under the Communal Land Registration Rights (CLRR) project.
Hamukwaya said all applicants should be permanently employed to enjoy benefits such as a pension fund, housing and vehicle allowance, and more.
BACKGROUND
In 2021, the employees wrote to the minister of agriculture, water and land reform, Calle Schlettwein, through the then executive director Percy Misika and copied the deputy minister of agriculture, Anna Shiweda, and labour minister Utoni Nujoma in to register unfair labour practices.
Their contractual arrangement was being handled by the then CLRR manager and now acting executive director Ndiyakupi Nghituwamata.
The workers said they were being treated like their forefathers under the South West Africa Native Labour Association (Swanla) by being employed for a short period of time only, before being disposed of.
In 2019, the workers said they received an email from the project’s junior human resources officer under their former director, saying their contracts were due to expire on 31 March 2019, and that they were laid off until October the same year.
“These deliberate manipulation and purposely orchestrated acts by the former project manager and former RPI director forced us to find ourselves in difficult situations whereby we ended up being in a lot of debt.
“We can’t even afford to pay for our rentals, neither buy food, nor pay school fees for ourselves and our children and families,” the employees wrote.
They said the project staff were deliberately being demoted after their contract renewals, causing their incomes to fluctuate.
Some challenges included a lack of overtime and job security.
“The short-term contracts do not provide certainty that we would still be employed or rehired for a new contract,” the letter read.
“We are very much aware that the land registration process is an ongoing process, taking into consideration that the Land Board enacted are also part of the Communal Land Reform Act. Surely this registration project is not going to end anytime soon,” they stated.
An affected worker, who prefers to remain anonymous, says: “We have been loyal to the government, to the system. We did everything and risked our lives when we went to the field. There are snakes and wild animals in the areas where we worked. Even community members try to fight us sometimes. Still we have to explain our work to them.”
He says only the affected group of workers are familiar with the ins and outs of the registration system.
“When our contracts ended, most of the permanent staff have taken leave, because they don’t want questions from the public,” he says.
CONTRACT EXTENSION
He says the ministry has offered the workers extended contracts after the Labour Court’s ruling. Called for comment, Nghituwamata referred The Namibian to the land reform ministry’s public relations department.
Ministry spokesperson Jona Musheko has not responded to requests for comment.
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