Current research in SW Namibia recognises the Gariep arc as a southerly extension to the Damaran orogenic front of central and northern Namibia. We consider the Gariep arc to have evolved by large-scale thrusting of cover sediments and basement gneisses as flat-lying sheets emplaced to the south-east. Basic rocks with ophiolitic affinities are confined to the highest thrust sheet. However, due to the gravitational instability caused by virtue of its high density, this obducted mass collapsed onto a previously undeformed foreland centred in the Schakalsberg Mountains. Localised extensional flow beneath the thrust sheet initiated a series of imbricate thrust slices emplacing cover sediments and basement to the south-east onto a new foreland now located east of Rosh Pinah. A model of differential movement in a thrust regime, probably due to localised spreading of an obducted mass, is suggested for the origin of the observed arcuate structures.