Otavi
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Otavi is a town of 4,000 inhabitants in 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 ...
of central
Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
. Situated 360 km north of
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 ...
, it is the district capital of the Otavi electoral constituency.


Geography

The towns of Otavi,
Tsumeb , nickname = , settlement_type = City , motto = ''Glück Auf'' (German language, German for ''Good luck'') , image_skyline = Welcome to tsumeb.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption ...
(to the north) and
Grootfontein , nickname = , settlement_type = City , motto = Fons Vitæ , image_skyline = Grootfontein grass.jpg , imagesize = 300px , image_caption = , image_flag = , flag_si ...
(to the northeast) define an area known as the "Otavi Triangle", also known as the Otavi Mountainland. This geographical region is sometimes referred to as the "Golden Triangle", or as the "maize Triangle", owing to the cultivation of maize in the area. The three towns that define the triangle are roughly 60 km from each other. Most of the area is
dolomitic Dolomite () is an anhydrous carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate, ideally The term is also used for a sedimentary carbonate rock composed mostly of the mineral dolomite. An alternative name sometimes used for the dolomiti ...
(
Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...
) and the district was in the past renowned for its mineral wealth. Most of the deposits have now been exhausted. ''Elefantenberg'' (elephant mountain), a mountain 1,624 meters above sea level, is located about 7 km south of Otavi.


Economy and infrastructure

Much of the town's economy relies on the two grocery stores, a mill, two banks, two gas stations, and many surrounding game/cattle farms, as well as a handful of other small business. The owners of most of these businesses are
Afrikaners Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from Free Burghers, predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: ...
(white Africans or
Boer Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape Colony, Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controll ...
, ultimately Dutch, heritage) or Germans. Due to financial mismanagement, Otavi lost its town status in 2004 and was downgraded to "village". After revenue picked up again, town status was reinstated in November 2010. With the foundation of the
Ohorongo Cement Ohorongo Cement is a cement factory on farm Sargberg near Otavi in the Otjozondjupa Region of Namibia. It is one of two Namibian cement factories and has a production capacity of per annum. The ground breaking ceremony for the construction of ...
factory and a gold mine to be opened , business and employment is supposed to pick up significantly. A
steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...
manufacturing plant it's also being developed. The project will cost $201 million and it's expected to produce 100,000 tons of steel.


Transport

Otavi is a railway junction where the line from
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 ...
to
Oshikango Oshikango is a former village in northern Namibia and since 2004 part of the town of Helao Nafidi, although it still maintained its own village council for a number of years. ''Oshikango'' is still the name of the border post with Angola and the ...
branches off the line to
Grootfontein , nickname = , settlement_type = City , motto = Fons Vitæ , image_skyline = Grootfontein grass.jpg , imagesize = 300px , image_caption = , image_flag = , flag_si ...
. The town is served by the
Otavi railway station Otavi railway station is located in the mining town of Otavi in Namibia central Otjozondjupa Region. It is served by a mostly freight railway and limited number of passenger service. The extension of the railway towards the east to Grootfontein i ...
. The B1, the main road going North and South through Namibia runs right through Otavi, about a 3½ hour drive from the capital, Windhoek.


History

On July 1, 1915, the German Army was defeated at Otavi by South African troops; on June 9 they surrendered nearby and signed the Khorab Peace Treaty. There is a memorial to this event a few miles outside of Otavi. During the
South African Border War The South African Border War, also known as the Namibian War of Independence, and sometimes denoted in South Africa as the Angolan Bush War, was a largely asymmetric conflict that occurred in Namibia (then South West Africa), Zambia, and Angol ...
SWASpes, the 1 SWA Specialist Unit was based here, moving from
Oshivelo Oshivelo is a settlement in northern Namibia. Transport and infrastructure Oshivelo has a clinic that in 2014 was refurbished and named after Catherine Bullen, a woman that died here in 2002 due to inadequate facilities. In early 2005, the n ...
in 1979. The unit consisted of horse mounted troops, dog trackers, human trackers and motorcycle units to hunt insurgents.


Politics

Otavi is governed by a town council that has seven seats. The 2015 local authority election was won by
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 ...
which gained six seats and 957 votes. The remaining seat went to the
Democratic Turnhalle Alliance 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 ...
(DTA) which gained 79 votes. SWAPO also won the 2020 local authority election. It obtained 1,092 votes and gained five seats. One seat each went 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, an opposition party formed in August 2020) and 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, an opposition party formed in 2016) with 260 and 167 votes, respectively.


Education

Previously the German ''Regierungsschule Otavi'' (Government School Otavi) was in the city.Deutscher Bundestag 4. Wahlperiode Drucksache IV/3672

Archive
.
Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...
(West Germany). 23 June 1965. Retrieved on 12 March 2016. p. 32/51.


See also

*
Transport in Namibia This article deals with the system of transport in Namibia, both public and private. General History The beginnings of organised travel and transport routes in the territory of South West Africa, today Namibia, have not yet been established. This ...


References

{{Authority control Towns in Namibia Populated places in the Otjozondjupa Region