Otjinene
Otjinene is a village in the Omaheke Region of Namibia. It is the district capital of Otjinene Constituency. Otjinene is connected via a tarred road to the regional capital Gobabis, and via a road which was tarred in 2017 from Otjinene to Grootfontein.
Otjinene is surrounded by a communal area, where there are many villages. There are more or less 20 households in each village. The majority of the people around Otjinene are communal farmers, farming with cattle, goats and sheep. There is one health clinic which operates under the Ministry of Health and Social Services, and a number of retail stores.
to the Northeast is the Ozombuzovindimba heritage site. This is the place where in 1904 Lothar von Trotha issued the extermination order against the OvaHerero and Nama people, starting the Herero and Namaqua Genocide which would kill about 80% of all OvaHerero. OvaHerero and OvaMbanderu people gather annually here to commemorate lives and deaths of their ancestors.Politics
Otjinene was proclaimed a village by the government in 2011. Since then it is governed by a village council that has five seats.
Otjinene is one of the few local authorities where Namibia's ruling SWAPO party is in the opposition. In the 2015 local authority election it only gained one seat. The election was won by the National Unity Democratic Organisation which gained three seats. The remaining seat went to the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance.
