Three of the students expelled from the Springfield College of Education. They were Morgan Reddy, left, Anand Jugath, and Roy Sukuram.
THE Phoenix Working Committee (PWC) played a pivotal role in the history of Phoenix. Its origins lay in the support extended to residents of Tin Town, many of whom were forcibly relocated to the apartheid township. Overnight, these residents found themselves in a barren, underdeveloped environment, far from their workplaces, and separated from the neighbours and community networks they had built over decades.
As one activist recalled that the committee was formed to help Tin Town residents “negotiate a better deal and a good transition from the old to the new”.
Conditions were challenging for the first residents of Phoenix.
Dhaya Rambaran, former chairperson of the PWC, recounted in a 2003 brochure commemorating the 25th anniversary of the founding of the organisation: "When my family and I arrived in the Westham area of Phoenix, there were very few families in the area, gravel roads, and no street lighting. In short, the entire place we were to call our home was underdeveloped. At night, we often had to grope our way home. Going to work in the morning, especially if it rained, meant that we went to work with double soles. Transport was worse: buses had to drop passengers off in Redfern, and residents from Westham had to make the long trek every morning and evening to and from Redfern. Life was difficult."
