The southern race of the Chestnut Weaver occurs in Namibia, Botswana and Angola. Madel Whittington reported the first record of this species in Nossob in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, and the record was posted to Sabirdnet on 11 January 2011. Bird ringer Ben Smit saw a male on 14 January 2011 and reports as follows: "This morning I was very surprised to find a male Chestnut Weaver in full breeding plumage building a nest in amongst a Southern Masked Weaver colony in a garden in Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, Northern Cape - well within the SA boundaries! The bird is currently having a hard time trying to get female mask weavers interested and fending off attacks by the Masked males!" A team of atlasers drove to Tswalu on the weekend and Tony Archer took a photo of this nest on 16 January to submit to PHOWN - see here.

In Namibia the Chestnut Weaver is resident in parts and nomadic in other parts. The longest distances published for the species are of a bird ringed at Ngulia in Kenya and caught 213 km away 5 months later, and a bird in Namibia that moved 284 km. The closest known site for Chestnut Weavers to Nossob is 283 km (SABAP1 distribution) and from Tswalu it is 557 km.