Maerua kaokoensis Swanepoel, a new species confined to the Kaokoveld Centre of Endemism (Van Wyk & Smith 2001), is described. During fieldwork for the Namibian Tree Atlas Project, the author encountered Maerua trees in the remote Okakora Mountains, Kaokoveld, with the peculiar habit of being tall, erect and extremely slender, with a few long, thin branchlets near the apex, all of which are distinctly drooping or pendulous. At a distance, the trees superficially resembled Acacia robynsiana Merxm. & A.Schreib., a Kaokoveld endemic with a remarkably similar habit. Subsequently, another population of this Maerua was discovered in the Otjihipa Mountains further to the west where flowers and fruit were collected.