Last month’s tourist Indaba which took place in Durban saw the Deneysville stand populated by one, single ‘product’, Rnew, a Gin Distillery and Functions venue situated at the waterfront between Deneysville and Oranjeville.
The village received a last minute ‘dab’ at the exhibition, which resulted in some interest in the town post the event. Deneysville managed to beam a link on the stand to give greater exposure to the “small village with a big heart”, in the nick of time, during the closure of the show!
But it was not a case of too little too late! Rnew representatives held the fort and, although they showed off their exotic functions venue and ’water-bound’, Gin Distillery in their own capacity, they were prepared to share some of the spin-off.

Rnew interviewed 20 buyers and exhibitors most of whom came from Limpopo Province, and a couple from the Northern Cape and Western Cape. Indeed, there was some prospect for packages to be established in the future between the Vaal Dam and Kruger National Park.
Such a collaboration could see the Vaal Dam forge ahead perhaps into the international arena, according to members of the Deneysville Tourism Business Association (DTBA).

“Bums in beds and feet into the town,’ was the motto of DTBA Chairman, Mr. Linton Logie. He noted, however, that National Tourism, Regional Tourism and the pairing between council and the DTBA would have to partner more closely together if the drive to turn the town around was going to work.

(During late 2022 National Tourism. Regional Tourism and a Deneysville collective of businesses and resident’s associations met together to discuss the development of Deneysville as a tourism town. It was at that meeting that National Tourism outlined opportunities for Deneysville and Metsimaholo’s development and infrastructural improvement to become more palatable for tourism investment. Thereafter, at a meeting in February, 2023, Deneysville was selected for the annual, FS province town, turn-around project.) Unfortunately, thereafter, the newly formed DTBA was not included in some crucial plannery sessions and stakeholder’s events.

Mr. Logie noted that there had been too many meetings dropped and opportunities missed since the awarding of the turn-around project to Deneysville and Metsimaholo. DESTEA head, Mr. Kgotso Tau, suggested that the DTBA Chairman direct a letter to the relevant players in the organization of the INDABA and other exhibitions to avert any such oversights in the future.
He said: “It is my honest view that the DTBA should start working on Tourism Products ready for market and we work on that. Let us focus on the future,’ he said.

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