Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (S.Afr.) a vagrant living on the slopes of Table Mountain, Cape Town; also attrib.

1952		Drum (Johannesburg) Feb. 8: The ‘Bergies’ who live on the slopes of Devil’s Peak [...] are in a class by themselves [DSAE].
1964		M. Murray Under Lion’s Head 3: Some of these people probably had hide-outs along the bush land [...] like our bergies of today.
1972		Argus 10 Aug. 10: Sea Point is a Riviera for most of the won’t-works. Even the Bergies come down to do their shopping [...] Bergie women smelling of drink frequently come to the door begging.
1977		J. Waring Hot Air 147: Oh well, out of the mouths of babes and bergies . . .
1987		L. Beake Strollers 16: The bergies dragged out the bits of cardboard they slept on, squabbling over who was going to sleep nearest the fire.
1997		P.-D. Uys No Space on Long Street (2000) 6: I’m not a bergie anymore.
2000		A. Brink Rights of Desire (2001) 14: A drunken bergie, I thought.
2003		IOL News (SA) 21 May 🌐 His bergie sister is particularly well done, albeit a Cape Town cliché.
2005		A. Lovejoy Acid Alex 206: I need food, in spite of my shame or what anyone thinks. Now I know how bergies and gintus feel.
2010		‘Lekker Language Tips for Visitors’ in IOL News Online 12 Oct. 🌐 Bergie — mainstream word for a vagrant in Capetown.

2. as a term of non-specific abuse.

2003

IOL News (SA) 27 Jan. 🌐The children at school cruelly taunted Mishka and called her a ‘bergie’.