Windhoek
The recently proclaimed Otjinene Village in the Omaheke Region will soon house top South African retailers, including Shoprite, Pep Stores and Style.
This was confirmed by Otjinene Constituency Councillor Edwin Katjizeu yesterday, saying Pep Stores is set to open its doors on Friday, while Shoprite, Style and “a big China shop” are scheduled to open in mid-October.
“This is amazing. It’s one of the most beautiful, biggest stores we have in this country. The people of Otjinene will love it,” Katjizeu said, adding that the new development will create jobs for over 55 jobs for the inhabitants of Otjinene Constituency.
He said: “As we are speaking workers from Shoprite, Style and the Chinese shop are busy putting shelves in their respective shops.”
Otjinene is about 160 kilometres from the Omaheke regional capital, Gobabis. It was proclaimed a village council in 2011 and is surrounded by communal areas, where most people subsist by breeding cattle, goats and sheep.
About 18 kilometres northeast of Otjinene is Ozombuzovindimba, a heritage site where the infamous Extermination Order was issued by German General Lothar von Trotha in 1904, resulting in the massacre of vast numbers of Ovaherero and OvaMbanderu people through poisoning of the waterholes and killings.
Every year, Ovaherero people gather at the site to commemorate the lives and sacrifices of their ancestors in the wars of resistance.
The Trans-Kalahari Highway is just one development project among many in different parts of Namibia to create modern transportation infrastructure to facilitate trade, commerce and the movement of people, goods and services.
Other roads that form part of the gateway for the Southern Africa Development Community are the Trans-Kalahari Corridor, a tripartite trans-boundary route, that spans approximately 1 900 kilometres across the territories of Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. The Trans-Caprivi Corridor links Walvis Bay with Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe.