Conventionally, residential segregation in South Africa is associated with the ascent to power of the National Party, and the Group Areas Act (1950). This paper argues that the local state in Durban played an important role in influencing the segregation policies of the central state, and laid the foundation for the Group Areas Act of 1950. The focus is on Durban in the 1930s and 1940s, and attempts by the local state to segregate Indians by reducing their access to land and housing. Indians in Durban presented a threat to white economic dominance. In spite of opposition from the disenfranchised Indians, and reluctant central state support, the Durban City Council ultimately triumphed when the Ghetto Act was legislated in 1946. The Ghetto Act laid the foundations for the Group Areas Act which followed in 1950.
