George Hazeldon believes his proposed self-sufficient community will solve South Africa’s crime problem … for some. Chris McGreal went behind the electric fence
George Hazeldon likens his vision to Mont St Michel, the ancient French monastery and fortress. Detractors dismiss the British property developer’s scheme as a fool’s paradise. Either way, the contracts are rolling in without a brick laid or strand of electric fencing strung.
Hazeldon has taken our obsession with crime to its logical next step. He is building an entire town behind electric fencing, barricades and guards. This modern version of a medieval walled city is being carved out on a 200ha site next to one of the most exclusive towns in the Western Cape, Somerset West.
“It’s never been done in South Africa before. We’re building a whole town here. Not just a few houses with a security guard. There will be churches and schools and shops and lakes and its own police force of about 40 men. There’s even going to be a graveyard and someone’s already asked to set up a crematorium. When it’s finished, Heritage Park will have a population equivalent to Somerset West in the 1940s,” he said.
Heritage Park will not be completed for another decade, but the first shops are open and the first houses will be built by the end of the year. There will be about 2 000 homes – take your pick from Cape Dutch to Tudor English styles – priced from less than R200 000 to 10 times as much. But cost is not only what matters to most who come looking. Residents will need a pass to get through the four barricaded entrances in the towering electric fence. Everyone else will be eyed up carefully. Dozens of private security guards will patrol the streets.
“Today, the first question is security. Like it or not, it’s what makes the difference,” said Hazeldon. “When I grew up in London you had a community. You could play in the street and walk to school on your own. We were poor but it was a better way of life. We want to recreate that here, a community which doesn’t have to worry. But don’t get me wrong. This is not Stalag 15.”
Heritage Park is designed as a self- sufficient community. Part of the site is given over to shops and small industries which the developer hopes will provide jobs to some residents. With schools, clinics and work inside the town, there should be no need to venture beyond the barricades.
Those on the inside are not supposed to notice the electric fence around the town. Their attention will be focused on the two salmon-filled lakes already planted in the midst of what is planned as a 20ha central park, or stunning views of the Hottentots-Holland mountains and the Helderberg.
There is the touchy subject of race. Hazeldon – who came to South Africa on holiday 24 years ago and was so smitten that he emigrated – raises it without prompting. “The blacks and coloureds must be having it worse than we are when it comes to crime so there’ll be some who want to live here. The only criteria is that people want to live as good neighbours. We can build part of the rainbow nation here.”
And then there are the squatters. More than 1 000 people live in a camp on the edge of Heritage Park. They cannot be forcibly removed so Hazeldon plans to build them a township of 142 houses on the far corner of the development. It will be on the outside of the electric fence, but he hopes that some of its residents will find work in the shops and as domestic workers inside the wire.
“Its a win-win situation. They get free homes and we deal with an unsightly problem,” he said.
There are detractors. The African National Congress councillor for the municipality, Heinrich Magerman, dislikes the mentality behind Heritage Park. “I think it’s a bad sign because there are other ways of beating crime such as getting communities involved. By installing an electric fence they are isolating themselves from the rest of society,” he said.
Which is precisely why estate agent Louise Verge says she has sold or is awaiting final confirmation of mortgages on about one-third of the first batch of houses on which work should start in the next few weeks.
Hazeldon plans to move to Heritage Park with his wife and two children. He’s picked a prime site next to one of the lakes.