Windhoek

Abstract

With a current population approaching 200 000, Windhoek, the Namibian capital, is now home to 13% of the country's total population. Secondary and tertiary functions, state bureaucracies, high level educational, health and other social services are heavily concentrated in this classic primate city. Racial segregation was a feature of life throughout the century of colonial rule by Germany and then South Africa. Although fashioned in the image of the apartheid city during the 1950s and 1960s, most institutionalized apartheid measures outside the spheres of education and health were abolished during the period of internal reform from 1977 onwards. Since independence in 1990, further progress has been made, with active efforts to address infrastructural and shelter deficits in the former black townships. Radical transformation, however, does not appear to be on the agenda. Rapid urban growth has continued, raising concerns over the adequacy of developable land and water supply in this high altitude, semi-arid valley.