Aranos
Aranos is a town in the Hardap Region of central Namibia, situated in the Nossob River basin in the Kalahari Desert. The town had 5,493 inhabitants in 2023.
The main economic activity is farming. The place normally receives an annual average rainfall of, although in the 2010/2011 rainy season were measured.
History
The original name of the settlement was Arahoab, Khoekhoe for red area. During the Herero Wars, Schutztruppe units of Imperial Germany 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 military office was closed again. Postal services, however, continued until the Germans lost control of the colony in 1915.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.
Politics
Aranos is the administrative centre of Aranos Constituency since 2013. Before that it belonged to the Mariental Rural constituency. Aranos was proclaimed a village in 1958. It was governed by a 5-seat village council until it was upgraded to "town" status in 2010. There is now a town council that has seven seats.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 and the Republican Party. SWAPO also won most votes in the 2010 local authority election. The Democratic Turnhalle Alliance finished in 2nd place with 205 votes, followed by the Rally for Democracy and Progress, SWANU and the Congress of Democrats. SWAPO also won the 2015 election, gaining four seats in the town council. The RDP gained two seats, and the DTA one.
The 2020 local authority election was won by the newly formed Landless People's Movement which scored well all over Hardap. LPM gained 745 votes and three seats in the town council, followed by SWAPO with two seats, the likewise new Independent Patriots for Change with one seat and the Popular Democratic Movement, also with one seat and 90 votes. The current mayor is Marline Claasen.