Large Industrial Complex
Situated on the northern bank of the Vaal River, Vereeniging was founded in 1892 forms part of South Africa's largest industrial complex. The town owes its existence to the rich coal deposits occurring in the area and was founded on the farms Leeuwkuil and Klipplaatsdrift in 1882.
Vereeniging owes its Dutch name, translated as 'association', to the first coal mining company in the area, the Zuid-Afrikaansche en Oranje Vrijstaatsche Kolen-en-Mineralen-Mijn Vereeniging.
The town made world headlines in May 1902 when the terms to end the South African War were negotiated here. The treaty was, however, signed at Melrose House in Pretoria. The Vaal River and its willow-lined banks are popular recreational areas, drawing many people on weekends and holidays.
The town's museum displays a valuable collection of photographs of the peace negotiations, and also has interesting archaeological and palaeontological exhibits, among them Glossopteris fossil plants occurring in the coal seams. The Vaal Technorama Industrial Museum is the only one of its kind in the country.
The Vaal River
The 1,200-kilometre Vaal River flows through five provinces and was originally the border between the Transvaal and Orange Free State. It was known to the San as the Gij ’Gariep (tawny coloured) and in Bantu tongues as the iliGwa (erratic).
In 1923 the Rand Water Board constructed a barrage across the river to create a reservoir and in 1936 the Vaal Dam was built upstream from Vereeniging. For years a vital cog of South African industry, today the tourism potential of the river – particularly along its middle stretch – is being exploited.
Three other archaeological sites of interest lie in and around the town: the Duncanville Archaeological Reserve and the Klip River Quarry, 6 km out of town, have both yielded a large number of Earlier Stone Age tools, while on an outcrop at Redan, a few kilometres to the north of the town, Stone Age shamans (medicine men) carved over 240 engravings, mainly geometrical, into the rock. Prior arrangements to visit Redan must be made with the Vaal Technorama Museum.