Durban - Winterton has pipped Vryheid and Pongola to the post as KwaZulu-Natal’s best town to visit, putting it in line for a R1-million prize if it comes out tops nationally.
The village, set in the foothills of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg, is a finalist in this year’s kykNET Kwela Town of the Year competition and voting started on Wednesday to decide which of the nine finalists will be the best town to visit in the country.
The winner bags a marketing campaign worth R1-million which, residents say, could put Winterton on the international tourist map, creating sorely needed work for the locals.
Annali Honiball, the curator of the Winterton museum, said people had laughed at her when she nominated the town.
“No one believed we could win it. But Church@Work, a not-for-profit organisation, has worked very hard since 2003 to beautify and clean our town. We are so proud that our hard work has paid off,” she said.
Towns nominated for the competition cannot be part of a metropolitan area and must have a population of less than 500 000. This year 45 towns were named from across South Africa and Namibia. Among the nine 2013 finalists are Fouriesburg in the Free State, White River in Mpumalanga, Paarl in the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape’s Karoo town of Steytlerville.
Graaff Reinet in the Eastern Cape, De Rust in the Western Cape and Sabie in Mpumalanga have won the coveted title previously.
The organiser of the four-year-old kykNET competition, Hetta Saunderson, said criteria had nothing to do with the efficacy of local municipalities.
“We asked voters which towns are a ‘must-see’. We call for nominations which our viewers then vote on to decide who the finalists from each region will be. At 7.30 tonight people can start voting on which is the best in the country to visit.”
Voting would close at midday on August 6.
Honiball said Paarl was boasting that all it needed was each one of its 100 000 residents to vote once and it would win, as last year’s winning town got 75 000 votes.
“Paarl doesn’t need it. We do. Our only chance is if the whole of KZN votes for us,” she said.
Voters must SMS “Winterton” to 33157. SMSes cost R1.50. - The Mercury
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