Gochas

---

title: "Gochas" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["populated-places-in-the-hardap-region", "villages-in-namibia", "herero-wars"] description: "Village in Hardap, Namibia" topic_path: "general/populated-places-in-the-hardap-region" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gochas" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Village in Hardap, Namibia ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement"]

Field	Value
name	Gochas
native_name_lang
settlement_type	Village
image_skyline	Gochas bird eye view.jpg
image_caption	Aerial view of Gochas (2017)
pushpin_map	Namibia
coordinates
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_name	Namibia
subdivision_type1	Region
subdivision_type2	Constituency
unit_pref	Metric
area_urban_footnotes
area_rural_footnotes
area_metro_footnotes
area_magnitude
population_footnotes
population_total	1,868
population_as_of	2023
population_density_km2	auto
timezone1	South African Standard Time
utc_offset1	+2
blank_name	Climate
blank_info	BWh
website
::

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Gochas is a village in the Hardap Region of Namibia. The village had 1,868 inhabitants in 2023.

History

The village has been the main settlement of the ǃKharakhoen (Fransman Nama), a subtribe of the Nama people, since 1889.

Gochas was a flashpoint in the colonial Herero Wars in German South West Africa. It was used as a military post and camel station under Imperial German rule. In January 1905 the Germans defeated the Nama chief Simon Kooper here. The final battle of the war, the Battle of Seatsub, was fought in Bechuanaland in March 1908. Capt. Friedrich von Erckert was killed in action, and a memorial was built in Gochas.

Geography

Gochas is located 110 km southeast of Mariental and 64 km southwest of Stampriet on the way to the Mata Mata border post to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. It lies on the banks of the Auob River 1,150 m above sea level. The area is at the center of a set of Kalahari Desert dune farms on which cattle and sheep graze.

Demographics

In 1960, the population was reported as 205 whites, 108 mixed-race, and 224 blacks.

Climate

Gochas receives an average of 176 mm of rainfall per year. During the 2010s drought a low of 31 mm was recorded.

Politics

Gochas is governed by a village council, established in 1958, that has five seats.

The 2015 local authority election was won by the SWAPO party which gained three seats (326 votes). One seat each was won by the Congress of Democrats (CoD, 96 votes) and the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA, 36 votes). The 2020 local authority election was won by the newly formed Landless People's Movement (LPM) which scored well all over Hardap. LPM gained 347 votes and three seats in the village council. SWAPO gained only one seat (147 votes), and the likewise new Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) won the remaining seat with 108 votes.

References

References

5. Malan, Johan S. (1998). "Die Völker Namibias". Klaus Hess.
6. Dierks, Klaus. "Biographies of Namibian Personalities, K".
7. Haacke, Wulf D. (1992). "The Kalahari Expedition, March 1908: The Forgotten Story of the Final Battle of the Nama War". Botswana Notes and Records.
8. Cloete, Luqman. (24 November 2005). "Ministry takes up probe of problems at Gochas". [[The Namibian]].
9. "Gochas". Namibweb.
10. Potgieter, D.J. (ed.) 1972. [[Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa]]. Cape Town: Nasionale Opvoedkundige Uitgewery (Nasou).
11. "4.5 Population by town and census years (2011 and 2023)". [[Namibia Statistics Agency]].
12. (23 May 2019). "Khomas faces worst drought in 90 years". [[The Namibian]].
13. (2015). "Know Your Local Authority". Institute for Public Policy Research.
14. (28 November 2015). "Local elections results". [[Electoral Commission of Namibia]].
15. (29 November 2020). "2020 Local Authority Elections Results and Allocation of Seats". [[Electoral Commission of Namibia]].

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::