Hilma Dalondoka Kuduva is a chief legal officer in the directorate of legislative drafting within the Ministry of Justice. Kuduva, a highly skilled legislative drafter, is responsible for drafting and scrutinising legislation, such as proposed Bills Acts of parliament, rules, regulations, proclamations, codes and directives.
She is also part of the team responsible for converting and translating policy into law primary and secondary legislation, as well as interpreting acts and regulations. Kuduva provides legislative advice and drafting services, and serves as an advisor to the government in legislative matters.
Her beginning
Kuduva joined the public service in 2014 after obtaining her Bachelor of Laws (LLB) honours degree. But before that, she worked as an intern at the Ministry of Works and Transport in the directorate of civil aviation, where her roles were to draft and scrutinise multilateral and bilateral air services agreements and memoranda of understanding and agreements.
She also worked at Vision Africa, a market research company.
“I started my career as a legislative drafter as soon as I graduated from law school with a B-Juris degree and LLB Honours degree from the University of Namibia. I further proceeded and completed my justice training and practical training of completing hours of court work at civil litigation government attorney, where I successfully got my admission as an admitted legal practitioner of the High Court of Namibia,” she narrated.
According to her, becoming a lawyer was her dream; however, she also had other areas of interest, centred around becoming a doctor, a civil engineer or a forensic scientist.
“Anything that would stimulate my mind and be interestingly challenging was what intrigued me. However, I am satisfied with my career option at the end of the day and would aim to specialise in other fields of law, although the law is very broad and every aspect of it is highly interesting, which makes specialising a difficult task,” Kuduva said.
Asked why she chooses to be a public servant, Kuduva said, “I joined the public service because it has a vast amount of opportunities to take advantage of, and it was the best place to practice the legal knowledge that I possess. Not only does it expose you to engage with other offices, agencies and ministries, but also various stakeholders that one meets in the many workshops, training, meetings and seminars that I attend.
But what I like most about working for the government is the healthy working environment I am in, training opportunities, career growth, benefits and capacity building, and active engagements with stakeholders, as well as other public servants from the management level all the way down,” she said.
According to Kuduva, government offers a lot of growth opportunities, and it is the best sector to be a part of, especially when you strive to support government agencies and improve, and make a difference in one’s community and country at large.
“The public sector has helped me in developing my professional skills by obtaining drafting training on the job nationally and internationally through the number of programmes I attended in this respect to achieve my long-term goal of becoming an experienced legislative drafter.
“There is also a big culture of organisations investing in their staff. This is great for those who are passionate about learning a developing within their role. The various training programmes allow one to take on higher responsibilities in the public sector. The employment benefits are a bonus – not to mention the job security,” she said.
Challenges
There is no job without limitation – and for Kuduva, limited time and lack of dealing with a client who does not have knowledge of policies are some of the major challenges she is faced with.
“One of the main challenges one experiences is not understanding the policy document and the client not being knowledgeable about the policy at hand. That causes a delay and impacts the timely finalisation of a piece of legislation. When both you and the client are unable to understand some policy issues, it will require you to do extensive research to understand the policy and be able to apply your mind to it.
Identify the mischief that the piece of legislation seeks to rectify; does it adequately address it, and what are the loopholes if any? Only then can you engage the client and offer legislative advice on that particular piece of legislation that might be defective. There is no room for laziness; you need to pay attention to always detail and be analytical” she said.
Kuduva said what is fulfilling about her job is when she receives positive feedback from the clients.
“Positive feedback is highly encouraging, and one can only keep improving to maintain this positive feedback. When clients approach the head of the directorate or the executive director for specifically my legal skill in a particular area, it also indicates my ability and the trust they have in seeing their layman’s drafts converted into legislation by me.
Another fulfilment, she said, comes from “When you finalise a Bill, which is passed and becomes an Act of Parliament, knowing very well that you know it by heart, every word, comma and full stop. The feeling of drafting a law that’s gazetted and promulgated, which faced no challenges in court or declared ambiguous by a competent court, creates a sense of accomplishment within oneself,” she said.
Expertise
All ministries’ offices and agencies initiate laws in parliament regulations, and they take certain administrative actions that require to be gazetted by way of notice in the gazette. This necessitates for her as a legal drafter to always have a notice or a proclamation, which are announcements made by the president to draft daily.
“We are very impartial when drafting. Therefore, all legislation is dealt with within the ambits of the law and within the timeline set for their completion. My expertise benefits all government offices, ministries and agencies through timely service delivery. I can complete work faster than the deadline set because of the specialised drafting skills I possess, and offering advice on which areas to improve when faced with a poorly crafted unresearched piece of legislation. My ministry benefits from my production of quality legislation,” Kuduva asserted.
Future plans
When asked how long she plans to serve in the public service, Kuduva had this to say: “I can’t determine the future at this very moment; however, I do intend on becoming a consultant nationally and on an international level in legislative drafting. Basically, to continue growing professionally in my field of specialisation”.