disruptions’
Heidi Clark
Community leader Freddie Brown says the 350 “squatters” who have made their home under the tall pine trees on a hill in Wilderness have lived in the area since the 1920s and feel they have a right to be there.
The setting is idyllic, but for the fact that they are forced to share their water source, a ground dam, with the local livestock. The other water source, a stream running through the settlement, is effectively an open-air toilet.
The Wilderness Transitional Local Council has considered various solutions for the people of this small community – except providing them with the services most communities in this affluent region take for granted.
Ratepayers with property adjoining Wilderness Heights claim the community is “disruptive”.
Ronnie Cox, a Wilderness Heights property owner, lives across the road from the community. He claims the value of his property has been drastically reduced. He says he was advised by an estate agent that unless the community was moved his land would be “all but worthless”.
Community members strenuously deny these claims. They say the disruptive behaviour they are blamed for emanates from the surrounding farms.
Hanna Frans has been living in the community for two years. “It’s difficult,” she says. “On Fridays people get brought here by the farmers. They gather under a certain tree and all get drunk on their wages. Then we get blamed for the noise they make.”
Many farmers in the area use the “dop” system to pay their workers – buying them alcohol as part of their wages – adding to the problem. – DMA