Khomas Region
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Khomas is one of the fourteen
regions of Namibia Namibia uses regions as its first-level subnational administrative divisions. Since 2013, it has 14 regions which in turn are subdivided into 121 constituencies. Upon Namibian independence, the pre-existing subdivisions from the South African ...
. Its name refers to the Khomas Highland, a high plateau landscape that dominates this administrative unit. Khomas is centered on the capital city
Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 20 ...
and provides for this reason superior transportation infrastructure. It is located in the central highlands of the country and is bordered by the
Erongo region Erongo is one of the 14 regions of Namibia. The capital is Swakopmund. It is named after Mount Erongo, a well-known landmark in Namibia and in this area. Erongo contains the municipalities of Walvis Bay, Swakopmund, Henties Bay and Omaruru, as ...
to the west and the northwest and by the
Otjozondjupa region Otjozondjupa is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia. Its capital is Otjiwarongo. The region further contains the municipalities of Okahandja and Grootfontein and the towns Okakarara and Otavi. , Otjozondjupa had 97,945 registered voters. Ge ...
to the north. To the east is the
Omaheke region Omaheke ( hz, Sandveld) is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, the least populous region. Its capital is Gobabis. It lies in eastern Namibia on the border with Botswana and is the western extension of the Kalahari desert. The self-governed vil ...
, while in the south is the
Hardap region Hardap is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia, its capital is Mariental. Hardap contains the municipality of Mariental, the towns Rehoboth and Aranos, and the self-governed villages Gibeon, Gochas, Kalkrand, Stampriet and Maltahöhe. It is ...
. The region is characterized by its hilly countrysize and many valleys. It has well-developed economical, financial, and trade sectors. Khomas Region occupies 4.5% of the land area of Namibia but has the highest population of any of its regions (16.2%). Khomas is one of only three Namibian regions to have neither shoreline nor a foreign border.


Politics

The Governor of Khomas Region is
Laura McLeod-Katjirua Laura Veendapi McLeod-Katjirua is a Namibian politician who has been Governor of the Khomas Region since 2012 and Deputy Secretary General of SWAPO since 2012. Previously she was Governor of Omaheke Region from 2001 to 2012. She was transferred ...
. The region comprises ten
constituencies An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...
: *
John Pandeni John Alphons Pandeni (30 July 1950 – 14 March 2008) was a Namibian politician and trade unionist. A member of SWAPO, Pandeni was Minister of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development at the time of his death in 2008. Early l ...
*
Katutura Central Katutura Central is a constituency in the Khomas Region of Namibia, comprising the extensions 2–5 and 7–11 of Windhoek suburb Katutura. Katutura is a township that was founded by the then apartheid government of Namibia for black people in t ...
*
Katutura East Katutura East is a constituency in the Khomas Region of Namibia. It consists of the extensions 1, 6, and 19 of the suburb Katutura, a township within Windhoek that was founded by the then Apartheid government of Namibia for black people in the 19 ...
*
Khomasdal North Khomasdal North is a constituency in Windhoek in the Khomas Region of Namibia. it had 25,550 registered voters. The constituency consists of parts of the suburbs Khomasdal, Katutura, and Otjomuise. It had a population of 43,921 in 2011, up from ...
*
Moses ǁGaroëb Moses Mague ǁGaroëb (14 April 1942, in Arixas near Mariental – 19 September 1997, in Windhoek) was a Namibian politician, founding member of SWAPO, and member of SWAPO's Politburo and Central Committee. During his political career, ǁGar ...
*
Samora Machel Samora Moisés Machel (29 September 1933 – 19 October 1986) was a Mozambican military commander and political leader. A socialist in the tradition of Marxism–Leninism, he served as the first President of Mozambique from the country's ...
*
Tobias Hainyeko Tobias Hainyeko (1932–1967) was a Namibian guerrilla fighter who served as the first commander of the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) during the Namibian War of Independence from the 1960s through to the 1980s. Early life and career ...
* Windhoek West *
Windhoek East Windhoek East is a constituency in the Khomas Region of Namibia. It consists of the upper-class suburbs of Windhoek: Auasblick, Avis, Klein Windhoek, Ludwigsdorf, Luxury Hill, Olympia, and Suiderhof. It had a population of 22,712 in 2011, u ...
*
Windhoek Rural Windhoek Rural is a constituency in the Khomas Region of Namibia. Its district capital is the settlement of Groot Aub. It had a population of 22,254 in 2011, up from 20,212 in 2001. , it has 13,625 registered voters. Windhoek Rural contains al ...
Khomas is important electorally, as nearly 17% of the total votes in the 2004 election came from this region. , it has 264,905 registered voters.


Regional elections

In the 2015 regional elections,
SWAPO The South West Africa People's Organisation (, SWAPO; af, Suidwes-Afrikaanse Volks Organisasie, SWAVO; german: Südwestafrikanische Volksorganisation, SWAVO), officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia, is a political party and former ind ...
obtained 81% of the total votes (
2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
: 78%) and won in all ten constituencies. In the 2020 regional election SWAPO obtained 38% of the total votes. It was still the strongest party but lost
Windhoek Rural Windhoek Rural is a constituency in the Khomas Region of Namibia. Its district capital is the settlement of Groot Aub. It had a population of 22,254 in 2011, up from 20,212 in 2001. , it has 13,625 registered voters. Windhoek Rural contains al ...
to the
Landless People's Movement The Landless People's Movement was an independent social movement in South Africa. It consisted of rural people and people living in shack settlements in cities. The Landless People's Movement boycotted parliamentary elections and had a histor ...
(LPM, a new party registered in 2018),
Windhoek East Windhoek East is a constituency in the Khomas Region of Namibia. It consists of the upper-class suburbs of Windhoek: Auasblick, Avis, Klein Windhoek, Ludwigsdorf, Luxury Hill, Olympia, and Suiderhof. It had a population of 22,712 in 2011, u ...
to the
Independent Patriots for Change The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) is a political party in Namibia. It was founded by Panduleni Itula in August 2020. As an independent presidential candidate in the November 2019 election, Itula won the best result of a losing candidat ...
(IPC, also a new party formed in August 2020), and
Katutura Central Katutura Central is a constituency in the Khomas Region of Namibia, comprising the extensions 2–5 and 7–11 of Windhoek suburb Katutura. Katutura is a township that was founded by the then apartheid government of Namibia for black people in t ...
to the
Popular Democratic Movement The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), formerly the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), is an amalgamation of political parties in Namibia, registered as one singular party for representation purposes. In coalition with the United Democratic ...
(PDM).


Economy and infrastructure

Khomas has 100 schools with a total of 73,302 pupils.


Demographics

According to the Namibia 2001 Population and Housing Census, Khomas had a population of 250,262 (123,613 females and 126,648 males or 102 males for every 100 females) growing at an annual rate of 4%. The
fertility rate The total fertility rate (TFR) of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if: # she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through her lifetime # she were t ...
was 4.9 children per woman. 93% lived in urban areas while 7% lived in rural areas, and with an area of 37,007 km2, the population density was 6.8 persons per km2. By age, 11% of the population was under 5 years old, 18% between 5–14 years, 67% between 15–59 years, and 4% 60 years and older. The population was divided into 58,580 households, with an average size of 4.2 persons. 36% of households had a female head of house, while 64% had a male. For those 15 years and older, 61% had never married, 24% married with certificate, 3% married traditionally, 7% married consensually, 2% were divorced or separated, and 2% were widowed.
White Namibians White Namibians (german: Weiße Namibier or Europäer Namibier) are people of European descent settled in Namibia. The majority of White Namibians are Afrikaners (locally born or of White South Africans descent), with many of the White minority ...
and
Coloureds Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...
form one third of the population of this region. The most commonly spoken languages at home were
Oshiwambo The Ovambo () language is a dialect cluster spoken by the Ovambo people in southern Angola and northern Namibia, of which the written standards are Kwanyama and Ndonga. The native name for the language is ''Oshiwambo'' (also written ''Oshi ...
(37% of households),
Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
(24%), Nama/ Damara (13%), and
Otjiherero Herero (, ''Otjiherero'') is a Bantu language spoken by the Herero and Mbanderu peoples in Namibia and Botswana, as well as by small communities of people in southwestern Angola. There were 211,700 speakers in 2014. Distribution Its linguisti ...
(9%). Other languages found in Khomas are English, German, and a smattering of other Namibian language groups.Tonchi, Victor L., William A. Lindeke, and John J. Grotpeter, "Khomas Region" Historical Dictionary of Namibia. 2nd edition. Toronto: The Scarecrow Press, Inc, p. 211. For those 15 years and older, the literacy rate was 94%. In terms of education, 87% of girls and 86% of boys between the ages of 6-15 were attending school, and of those 15 years and older, 76% had left school, 12% were currently at school, and 8% had never attended. Households in Khomas earn by far the highest average annual income at N$47,407, well more than the national average of N$17,198. There is very limited subsistence farming in the region, with only 0.4 percent of the population engaged in farming, 0.3 percent of households are rearing animals, and 0.1 percent are earning income from cash cropping. Windhoek accommodates most of Namibia's light industry and manufacturing. Some of the most important are meat processing, bottling and canning, beer brewing, plastics, and refrigeration. The city is also Namibia's educational, commercial, and tourism capital. In 2001 the employment rate for the labor force (46% of those 15+) was 71% employed and 29% unemployed. For those 15+ years old and not in the labor force (50%), 55% were students, 25% homemakers, and 20% retired, too old, etc. According to the 2012 Namibia Labour Force Survey, unemployment in the Khomas Region stood at 26.5%. The two studies are methodologically not comparable. Among households, 98% had
safe water Drinking water is water that is used in drinking, drink or food preparation; potable water is water that is safe to be used as drinking water. The amount of drinking water required to maintain good health varies, and depends on physical activity ...
, 20% no toilet facility, 69% electricity for lighting, 83% access to
radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
, and 9% had wood or charcoal for cooking. In terms of households' main sources of income, 1% derived it from farming, 74% from wages and salaries, 7% cash remittances, 11% from business or non-farming, and 4% from pension. For every 1000 live births there were 53 female infant deaths and 54 male. The life expectancy at birth was 56 years for females and 54 for males. Among children younger than 15, 5% had lost a mother, 10% a father, and 1% were orphaned by both parents. 4% of the entire population had a disability, of which 22% were deaf, 44% blind, 11% had a speech disability, 9% hand disability, 15% leg disability, and 4% mental disability.


External links


References

{{Coord, 22, 48, S, 17, 00, E, region:NA_type:adm1st_source:kolossus-nowiki, display=title Regions of Namibia States and territories established in 1992 1992 establishments in Namibia