Phoenix Settlement, 1900s.
1. The period between the 1950s and the 1970s in South Africa witnessed the emergence of a central state housing policy in delineated group areas.
2. The genesis of Phoenix from the late 1950s through to the mid-1970s occurred within the council's evolving apartheid housing strategy, the roots of which can be traced back to the council's attempt to seek a permanent solution to the "Indian problem" of the 1940s.
3. The need for an Indian township to the north of Durban was first conceptualised in 1957 when the city engineer suggested the establishment of a self-contained and self-sufficient township (the "Indian City of the Future") on the North Coast in the vicinity of Verulam.
4 On July 20, 1962, The Natal Mercury reported that the rehousing of Indians in Durban (some 60% of whom were living in shacks or other totally unsatisfactory conditions) was the biggest social and economic problem facing the council.
