This document is a summary of the Odendaal Report, with comments by the author and a supplementary section dealing with the international position of the territory and with the Republican Government’s decisions to date on the Report.
The Commission was appointed to enquire into the welfare and progress of the
inhabitants of South West Africa and to recommend a plan for the development of
ethnic groups. It looked at South West Africa’s land and population, population movements implicit in the homeland proposals, the administration of the homelands, the general health of the population, as well as education and economics. The Odendaal Report reaches the optimistic conclusion that South West Africa is one of the most highly developed of the countries in Africa, but for all its merits it seems to have forgotten the realities of South West Africa.
