American inventor and businessman Thomas Edison once said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work”. 

Those who enjoy taking opportunities most often hit the bull’s eye.

One such person is advocate Mathias Shanghala Kashindi, who is the newly appointed head of the Directorate of Law Reform in the Ministry of Justice. 

Speaking to New Era this week, the experienced advocate expressed excitement over his new appointment: “I would like to express my gratitude to the government of the Republic of Namibia – in particular, the Minister of Justice and the attorney general for affording me this great opportunity to excel in this new role”. 

He further expressed his gratitude to the staff members of the directorate for welcoming him with enthusiasm and for their invaluable support.

“Together, we are a formidable team – and we take great pleasure in serving this great land of the brave,” Kashindi said.

Core functions

It has been three months into the job and Kashindi is thrilled, especially by the opportunity to contribute to the realisation of the strategic objectives of the Ministry of Justice, he said. 

The ministry’s objectives, he adds, are complementary to the overall goals of the government.

“Indeed, it is a challenging endeavour in many respects, including ensuring transformational leadership and management to the directorate, ensuring effective and efficient secretariat services to the Law Reform and Development Commission and the Cabinet Committee on Legislation, whilst at the same time ensuring the Minister of Justice achieves her constitutional mandates and the citizens of Namibia benefit from the law reform and development initiatives,” Kashindi said, speaking of the task that is laying ahead of him and his team. 

“As a directorate, one of our core functions is to conduct policy and legal research, which influences the government legislative and policy agenda,” he added. 

Having completed high school in Cuba in 1988, Kashindi went on to obtain a Bachelor of Arts in Law (LLB) in 1994, and a Master of Laws Degree (LLM) with a specialisation in International Law (with particular emphasis on the Law of the Sea/UNCLOS) in 1996 – at the Russian Peoples’ Friendship University (formerly known as Patrice Lumumba Friendship University) in Moscow, Russia. 

Additionally, the admitted legal practitioner of the High Court of Namibia is the holder of numerous postgraduate qualifications, amongst them: the United Nations University Certificate of Fellowship in Fisheries Policy and Planning (1999); a Certificate in Management Development Programme (2003) from the University of Stellenbosch; a Certificate in Finance for Non-Finance Managers (2006), another Certificate in Delimitation and Delineation of the Continental Shelf (2008), a Certificate in Negotiation and Drafting of Investment Treaties (2012), Advanced Trial Advocacy (2013) and a Certificate in Court Connected Mediation (2015). 

On the job

One gets the impression that speaking of Kashindi’s resume will last for days. For the past 10 years, he has also been defending the Government of Namibia in civil and labour suits in all courts and labour tribunals of Namibia. He is also the holder of several Cabinet appointments. 

Having worked as a liaison officer, policy analyst, operations manager, legal advisor and civil litigant, Kashindi professedly brings with him a wealth of professional, management and leadership experience, ranging from personnel management, public relations, policy and planning, legal advice, civil litigation as well as leadership and management. All of these enable him to fit in this job like a glove, he said.

“The position requires a dynamic professional with appropriate experience in the field of law, sound research background in the field of law, leadership and managerial components (namely direction, results from in-driven leadership, managing people, and organisation transformation), as well as admission as a legal practitioner as an advantage,” Kashindi said, adding that it was his enthusiasm for these requirements that prompted him to apply for this job. 

Queried on whether or not he had any priority areas in the execution of the job, Kashindi did not mince his words:

“As we await the appointment of the new commission, the directorate remains focused on ensuring the timely delivery of quality legal services through new skills development and capacitation of the existing expertise. Our focus further is to build a diversified team of professionals, comprising not only lawyers but also people with sociology, policy analysis and economic backgrounds,” he revealed.

“In addition, we are embarking upon a transformational drive with a view to streamlining our processes and ensuring that our stakeholders and the public at large are aware of our process, functions and operations. In so doing, we have to be decisive in our approach and strive for a result-oriented drive with a concrete plan of action,” he added. 

Likely challenges

Kashindi cited the absence of a commission, coupled with insufficient human capital, as well as the lack of specialised expertise and skills to drive the legislative and policy research agenda of the government as some of the main challenges that could hamper the directorate’s operations. 

“As the economy grows, it is expected that the recent discovery of exploitable oil and gas in Namibia and the hydrogen-to-power project will create additional pressure on the directorate, as there will be a need for specialised legal research skills in oil and gas and green hydrogen technologies to assist the government in the research, formulation of policies and new laws – and even in reforming existing laws to respond to the modern regulatory environment in those sectors,” Kashindi said, maintaining that not having the necessary human capacity and expertise will limit their ability to assist the government in achieving its intended policy and legislative agenda in those economic areas. 

“Therefore, resources mobilisation is critical for this purpose,” he added.

Kashindi further maintains that as a directorate, they fully align themselves to the noble strategic goals of the Ministry of Justice and take pride in heralding the core values of the ministry, which are integrity, transparency, service excellence, accountability, professionalism and synergy. 

“We shall, at all times, endeavour to ensure timely delivery of services by meeting set deadlines, being diligent in whatever we do, inculcating the culture of high performance and never permitting corruption and its evil tail to gain any place in the Ministry of Justice,” he concluded.