Aranos

Aranos is a town in the Hardap Region of central Namibia, situated in the Nossob River basin in the Kalahari Desert.

The main economic activity is farming. The place normally receives an annual average rainfall of 188 mm, although in the 2010/2011 rainy season 505 mm 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 office was closed again.

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 (DTA, 234 votes) and the Republican Party (RP, 182 votes). SWAPO also won most votes (546) in the 2010 local authority election. The Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) finished in 2nd place with 205 votes, followed by the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP, 186), SWANU (17) and the Congress of Democrats (15). SWAPO also won the 2015 election, gaining four seats in the town council (598 votes). The RDP gained two seats (246 votes), and the DTA one (194).

The 2020 local authority election was won by the newly formed Landless People's Movement (LPM) which scored well all over Hardap. LPM gained 745 votes and three seats in the town council, followed by SWAPO with two seats (465 votes), the likewise new Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) with one seat (283 votes) and the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM, the successor of the DTA), also with one seat and 90 votes. The current mayor is Marline Claasen.

People
Aranos is the birthplace of former National Assembly member Jurie Viljoen and human rights activist Pauline Dempers.