Aranos
Arahoab (historical)
Town
Aranos from bird's eye view (2017)
Aranos from bird's eye view (2017)
Aranos is located in Namibia
Aranos
Aranos
Coordinates: 24°08′S 19°07′E / 24.133°S 19.117°E / -24.133; 19.117
Country Namibia
RegionHardap Region
ConstituencyAranos Constituency
Proclaimed a village1958
Population
 (2011)[1]
 • Total3,683
Time zoneUTC+2 (South African Standard Time)
ClimateBWh
Websitewww.aranostc.org/home.html

Aranos is a town in the Hardap Region of central Namibia, situated in the Nossob River basin in the Kalahari Desert.

The main economic activity is farming.[2] The place normally receives an annual average rainfall of 188 millimetres (7.4 in), although in the 2010/2011 rainy season 505 millimetres (19.9 in) were measured.[3]

History

The original name of the settlement was Arahoab, Khoekhoe for red area. During the Herero Wars, Schutztruppe units of Imperial Germany's colonial forces were stationed here since March 1908. The volume of postal services to the military led to the opening of a post office in that year. After the war, in 1911, the office was closed again.[4]

To avoid confusion with the village of Aroab further south, Arahoab was renamed Aranos in the 1960s. Aranos is a portmanteau of Arahoab and Nossob River.[5]

Politics

Aranos is the administrative centre of Aranos Constituency since 2013. Before that it belonged to the Mariental Rural constituency.[6] Aranos was proclaimed a village in 1958.[7] It was governed by a 5-seat village council until it was upgraded to "town" status in 2010.[8] There is now a town council that has seven seats.[9]

In the 2004 local authority elections SWAPO won the town council election with 733 votes and gained three seats. One seat each were obtained by the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA, 234 votes) and the Republican Party (RP, 182 votes).[10] SWAPO also won most votes (546) in the 2010 local authority election. The Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) finished in 2nd place with 205 votes, followed by the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP, 186), SWANU (17) and the Congress of Democrats (15).[11] SWAPO also won the 2015 election, gaining four seats in the town council (598 votes). The RDP gained two seats (246 votes), and the DTA one (194).[12]

The 2020 local authority election was won by the newly formed Landless People's Movement (LPM) which scored well all over Hardap. LPM gained 745 votes and three seats in the town council, followed by SWAPO with two seats (465 votes), the likewise new Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) with one seat (283 votes) and the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM, the successor of the DTA), also with one seat and 90 votes.[13] The current mayor is Marline Claasen.

People

Aranos is the birthplace of former National Assembly member Jurie Viljoen[14] and human rights activist Pauline Dempers.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "Table 4.2.2 Urban population by Census years (2001 and 2011)" (PDF). Namibia 2011 - Population and Housing Census Main Report. Namibia Statistics Agency. p. 39. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  2. ↑ "Our mission and vision". Aranos Town Council. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  3. ↑ Menges, Werner (26 May 2011). "Rainy season was one for the record books". The Namibian. Archived from the original on 15 December 2011.
  4. ↑ Albert, Uwe; Beck, Friedhelm (2022). Kaiserliche Poststationen in Deutsch-Südwestafrika [Imperial Post Stations in German South West Africa] (in German). Berlin: Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Sammler deutscher Kolonialpostwertzeichen e.V. p. online excerpt.
  5. ↑ Raper, P.E. (1989). Dictionary of Southern African Place Names. Jonathan Ball Publishers. p. A. ISBN 0947464042.
  6. ↑ "Creation of new regions and division and re-division of certain regions into constituencies: Regional Councils Act, 1992". Government Gazette of the Republic of Namibia. No. 5261. Government of Namibia. 9 August 2013. pp. 33f. Archived from the original (pdf) on 27 April 2021. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
  7. ↑ "Information". Aranos Town Council. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  8. ↑ Hartman, Adam (27 Aug 2010). "Town regrading a 'sad move'". The Namibian. Archived from the original on 2012-03-17.
  9. ↑ "Know Your Local Authority". Election Watch. No. 3. Institute for Public Policy Research. 2015. p. 4.
  10. ↑ "14 May 2004 Local Authority Elections in Namibia". African Elections Database. 31 December 2005. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  11. ↑ Local Authority results Archived July 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Electoral Commission of Namibia
  12. ↑ "Local elections results". Electoral Commission of Namibia. 28 November 2015. p. 2. Archived from the original on 10 December 2015. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  13. ↑ "2020 Local Authority Elections Results and Allocation of Seats" (PDF). Electoral Commission of Namibia. 29 November 2020. p. 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  14. ↑ ELECTIONS 2009: MAG leading senior members New Era, 5 October 2009
  15. ↑ Pauline Dempers Archived 2011-06-11 at the Wayback Machine Namibia Institute for Democracy
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