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23-519: The area around Gobabis and along the Nossob River had a strong population of elephants. The settlement itself was a base camp for ivory hunters and a trading post for elephant tusks. In 1856 a mission station was established by one Friederich Eggert of the Rhenish Missionary Society . In the latter half of the 19th century and the early 20th century several conflicts flared up between

46-592: A Wesleyan missionary , which states: "Reached Gobabis which I named 'Elephant's fountain'" - a place name like "Place of Altercation" would not bode too well for the missionary station he intended to establish. The Gobabis district was proclaimed by the German authorities in February 1894 and in June the following year Gobabis was occupied by a German garrison. While the military fort, built in 1896–7, has long since disappeared, one of

69-546: A distance of 740 km and last flooded in 1989. The river also lends its name to Nossob camp ( 25°25′18″S 20°35′47″E  /  25.42167°S 20.59639°E  / -25.42167; 20.59639 ) in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park . The Nossob has its origin in two main tributaries , the Swart-Nossob and Wit-Nossob, meaning black and white respectively. Both tributaries have their origins in

92-706: A new party registered in 2018, 818 votes), the GRA (681 votes), NUDO (440 votes) and the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), formerly DTA, with 338 votes. Gobabis is the regional capital of the Omaheke Region . Gobabis Constituency covers most of the town area except for its eastern township of Nossobville which belongs to the Kalahari Constituency . Gobabis is home to Wennie du Plessis Secondary School, which began as an Afrikaans -medium school. With

115-516: A requirement to elect local and regional councillors. A supplementary voter registration, also for citizens that have turned 18 and those who have relocated, was conducted between 7 and 15 September 2020, and yielded 188,000 registrations. In April 2020, the Electoral Commission of Namibia announced that the national lockdown on account of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country would not affect

138-620: A town due to goods being transported from the mines of landlocked Botswana to the Namibian port of Walvis Bay , and furthermore from consumer goods being imported into Namibia from Gauteng in South Africa. The transport route is known as the Trans-Kalahari Corridor . Gobabis is connected to the Namibian railway system. The passenger train that used to run to the capital Windhoek four times

161-514: A week, no longer takes passengers. The town hosts a state hospital, a state clinic and a private hospital, banking and shopping facilities. Legare Stadium is located in the town. Gobabis is governed by a municipal council that has seven seats. The town has its own local party, the Gobabis Residents' Association (GRA) which won three council seats in the 1998 local authority election and one seat in 2004 . The 2015 local authority election

184-602: The Orange River , which it meets downstream of Augrabies Falls . The Oanob River , a tributary of the Auob River features two dams: 2020 Namibian local and regional elections Local and regional elections were held in Namibia on 25 November 2020 to elect new local and regional councils. The previous round of elections was held in 2015 and won by the ruling SWAPO party. Elections for regional councils are held using

207-715: The Ovambanderu and the Khauas Khoikhoi, as well as between the settlers and the indigenous people. Gobabis is in an area where the Herero and the Nama people fought wars against one another, as well as with settlers from the Cape colony that occupied the land. According to oral tradition, the earliest name for the settlement in this area was the Khoekhoegowab word ǂKhoandabes, the place where

230-435: The first-past-the-post electoral system. Voters in each constituency elect one councillor to represent them on their regional council. Local authority councillors are elected by a system of proportional representation . Local authority candidate lists have affirmative action requirements for women. Although Namibia has 1.35 million registered voters, only about 370,000 have voter cards that specify their area of residence,

253-496: The eastern slopes of the Otjihavera mountain range, east of Windhoek . Their sources are at 1,800 m and over 2,000 m above sea level respectively. The two river beds have their confluence some 80 km south of Gobabis , which is situated on the bank of the Swart-Nossob. From this confluence the river course passes the settlements of Leonardville and Aranos to arrive at Union's End , South Africa. From Union's End

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276-522: The election date. The elections will be conducted using paper ballots after the Supreme Court of Namibia ruled in February 2020 that without a paper trail , usage of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in elections contravenes the Electoral Act of 2014. For every of the 121 constituencies of Namibia one individual is elected to serve as constituency councillor and to represent their constituency in

299-512: The electoral court ordered a re-run. The re-run was conducted on 26 February 2021. Local elections determine the population of the village, town, and city councils and have a direct influence on who will become mayor, as this position is elected among all councillors. Contrary to the regional elections, local elections in Namibia are determined by party, not by individual. There are 57 local authorities for which elections were conducted. Results for

322-559: The elephant came to lick . The reason for this name is speculated to be that elephant tusks that would crack in the dry and hot climate of the Omaheke were at times stored right in the settlement's well. The Herero called the place Epako . Later the settlement was referred to as "Gobabis" by the Whites, this expression was likely derived from goba (argue, quarrel) and bis (place): The place where people quarreled . A common earlier interpretation of

345-557: The few buildings dating back to that era is the field hospital , or Lazarett, which has been declared a national monument. Gobabis has a semi-arid climate ( BSh , according to the Köppen climate classification ), with hot summers and cool winters (with mild days and chilly nights). The average annual precipitation is 370 mm (15 in). "Ministry of Works & Transport: Tabulation of Climate Statistics for Selected Stations in Namibia" (PDF) . 2012. Gobabis continues to grow as

368-595: The government abolition of non- English education after grade 4 at independence , the Afrikaans speaking community endeavoured to start a private school, and the Gobabis Gymnasium came into existence in January 2000 with 67 students from grades 8 to 11 and 6 teachers. In January 2002, 122 students were enrolled, and on December 2, 2004, the school was registered to teach grades 1 through 12. Primary school education officially

391-433: The local authority elections were announced on 29 November. For Okakarara , Otavi and Katima Mulilo the results were yet unavailable due to a necessary review. In all three towns it was alleged that the formula for allocating seats was not correctly applied. In the local authority elections for Aroab , Koës and Stampriet "serious procedural errors" were discovered. Voters were handed the wrong ballot papers, meant for

414-455: The name, ǂkhoa (Elephant) -bes (place), Elephant fountain , was introduced by Heinrich Vedder and gained wide acceptance. Vedder also opined that it was Amraal Lambert , Captain of the Kaiǀkhauan (Khauas Nama) who called the place Gobabis because he could not pronounce ǂKoabes . Apart from linguistic problems, this interpretation was contradicted by an 1845 letter by Reverend Joseph Tindall,

437-680: The respective regional council. The regional councils in turn select 3 representatives each to serve in the National Council . While the ruling SWAPO party nominated candidates in all constituencies and for all local councils, four constituencies had no opposition candidates at all: Mankumpi , Nkurenkuru , Tondoro and Uuvudhiya . There the SWAPO candidate was declared the winner. In the Mariental Rural constituency "serious procedural errors" were discovered. No initial result were announced, and

460-632: The river bed, forming the Botswana border, meanders through the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park for a distance of over 200 km. It reaches the southern boundary of the game reserve just north of Twee Rivieren Camp, near its confluence with the Auob River . In the Kalahari , the Nossob is said to flow about once a century. However, water is stored underground to provide life for grass and camelthorn trees growing in

483-464: The river bed. The Nossob may flow briefly after large thunderstorms, causing wildlife to flock to the river. The Nossob ends at a confluence with the Molopo River some 50 km south of Twee Rivieren. The confluence at 26°54′15″S 20°41′24″E  /  26.90417°S 20.69000°E  / -26.90417; 20.69000 is still 890 m above sea level . The Molopo is a tributary of

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506-562: Was started in January 2005. The Omaheke Regional Library is situated in town between the Epako suburb and Legare Stadium. The most notable landmark upon entering Gobabis from Windhoek is the Cattle Country Statue. Nossob River The Nossob River (also Nosob or Nossop ; ǂnuse ǃab , Khoikhoi for black river) is a dry river bed in eastern Namibia and the Kalahari region of South Africa and Botswana . It covers

529-627: Was won by SWAPO which gained 3,077 votes and five seats. One seat each was won by the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA, 682 votes) and the National Unity Democratic Organisation (NUDO, 153 votes). SWAPO also won the 2020 local authority election but lost majority control over the municipal council. It obtained 1,986 votes and gained three seats. One seat each went to the Landless People's Movement (LPM,

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