The Tzaneen Museum is crammed full of artefacts of the local Tsonga and North Sotho peoples pottery, basketry, beadwork, weapons, sacred drums and numerous other items of ethnological importance.

Most of the diplays form part of a private collection belonging to the curator Mr Witt, he has assembled the world’s largest collection of pole-carvings from the region. Mr Witt has also managed to secure the royal drums of the late Rain Queen as well as a number of other utensils that are normally burnt after the death of a Rain Queen.

There is a fine collection of woodcarvings by local artists and the collection records carvings covering a period of 100 years. The museum’s pottery collection covers a period of nearly 2 000 years.