Fossils of the bat-eared fox, Otocyon, have been found at various localities in Southern and Eastern Africa, often in archaeological contexts. In Namibia the genus has previously only been recorded from four Holocene localities. We herein describe a specimen from Kombat, Otavi Mountains, which is likely to be of Pleistocene age. The origin of the bat-eared fox lineage is still poorly understood. One scenario in the literature, which has been contested, is that it originated in Eurasia (or ultimately North America) and then spread to Africa before going extinct in Eurasia. Our preferred interpretation is that the earliest phases of the evolution of bat-eared foxes as a distinct lineage from other canids occurred in Africa during the Early Pliocene, because, by the mid-Pliocene a species is known from the Upper Laetoli Beds (3.85-3.6 Ma) Tanzania, and an Early Pleistocene species (Prototocyon recki) is known from Olduvai Bed I, Tanzania (ca 2.0-1.8 Ma) and the lineage is quite common in southern African Late Pliocene, Pleistocene and Holocene localities.