President Pratibha Patil on Monday laid the foundation stone for an IT Centre at the Phoenix Settlement in Durban, giving fillip to South Africa's education sector and capacity building.

"This is an important step forward in India's effort to help generate good quality, cost effective and relevant higher education and skills," Patil said while laying the foundation stone for the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Information Technology at the Phoenix Settlement, established by Mahatma Gandhi in 1904.

"The IT Centre will cater to the youth of communities around Phoenix Settlement with a view to empowering them to participate and benefit from the knowledge economy", she said.

Stressing that India and South Africa have a shared history and also a shared future, she said India was committed to work with the South African government to assist in capacity building and human resource development in South Africa and in Africa.

The President went round the Phoenix Settlement including Sarvodaya, the house where the Gandhi lived. The House was reconstructed after it was destructed in the 1985 riots apparently provoked by the then anti-apartheid regime.

Though the settlement had 100 acres of land bought by Gandhi when he was a lawyer, most of it has now been encroached with hutments coming up and just 8 acres remained with the Trust running the institution, one of its officials said.

Rugbeer Kallideen, Secretary and Trustee of the Settlement said that it was also running a school having some 800 students and most of them are locals. Prime Minister of Kwa-Zulu Natal province Zweli Mkhize was also present at the function.