Greyville is an area in
Durban
Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
. It is on the flat land west of the Durban city centre, at the foot of the
Berea. It includes the
Greyville Racecourse
Greyville Racecourse is a Thoroughbred horse race track in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The 2,800 metre pear-shaped turf track consists of several gradient features: it is run uphill from the 2,400 metre mark to the 1,800 ...
.
Initially, Greyville was a middle-class and working class white area, populated by those who couldn't afford to live in the upper Berea, because of its lower altitude.
Indians moved in, and by the 1930s, sections of Greyville were largely inhabited by Indians. The shops in the area were owned by shopkeepers of differing nationalities, and the area was cosmopolitan. Declared a slum, by the
Slums Act
The KwaZulu-Natal Elimination and Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Act, 2007 (the "KZN Slums Act") was a provincial law dealing with land tenure and evictions in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.[Group Areas Act
Group Areas Act was the title of three acts of the Parliament of South Africa enacted under the apartheid government of South Africa. The acts assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a system o ...]
and parts ("Block AK") were demolished in the 1970s, subsequently being converted into shopping centres, and low-rise corporate offices.
Block AK was subject to a substantial
land claim
A land claim is defined as "the pursuit of recognized territorial ownership by a group or individual". The phrase is usually only used with respect to disputed or unresolved land claims. Some types of land claims include aboriginal land claims, A ...
by its former inhabitants.
References
Suburbs of Durban
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