The decision came amid protests outside Cape Town”s Civic Centre organised by the Housing Assembly, in what campaigners described as one of South Africa’s first demonstrations focused on the environmental and social impacts of hyperscale data centres.
Cape Town’s Municipal Planning Tribunal (MPT) has approved an application by US-based data centre operator Equinix to begin developing a 174 MVA hyperscale data centre in the King Air Industria precinct, despite objections over the project’s potential impact on local water and electricity resources.
The decision came amid protests outside Cape Town’s Civic Centre organised by the Housing Assembly, in what campaigners described as one of South Africa’s first demonstrations focused on the environmental and social impacts of hyperscale data centres. The Housing Assembly and tech justice non-profit Foxglove, represented by the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), opposed the application during the tribunal hearing, arguing that Equinix had not provided sufficient information on how the facility would affect surrounding communities.
Representing the objectors, Kimal Harvey of the LRC told the tribunal that the Applicant has provided no evidence to support its claim that safety, health or wellbeing of the surrounding community will not be affected. Harvey added that “the Applicant has only made unsupported assurances that no impact will arise and they expect this body to accept this on blind faith.
The organisations argued that the application should be rejected because of concerns over the facility’s expected consumption of electricity and water in an area where some communities already face limited access to essential services. However, the tribunal approved the proposal, with only one member voting against it.
The dissenting member, Wally Johnstone, Lead Urban Planner at Macroplan, cited recent community protests over electricity access in Cape Town and warned that the objection “should not be ignored.” Referring to the anticipated greenhouse gas emissions associated with the data centre’s electricity demand, he said “the request to approach this and other applications like this with care is therefore a reasonable one.”
Johnstone also criticised “the lack of information on water usage provided by the applicant,” noting that Equinix’s representatives “merely stated that this will be confirmed at the site development plan stage.”
“Capetonians and South Africans as a whole have experienced load shedding and regular outages for an extended period of time, and the public has a right to know how this approval will affect grid stability and access to electricity. It goes without saying that those who are unable to afford alternative sources of energy installations are the most affected in situations of grid instability.”
– Wally Johnstone, Lead Urban Planner, Macroplan
Following the tribunal’s decision, Housing Assembly and Foxglove said they were reviewing the ruling with their legal representatives at the LRC and considering their next legal steps.
“Our concern is with mega data centres that may use vast amounts of water and electricity, while nearby communities still struggle to access basic services.”
– Kenneth Matlawe, Organiser, Housing Assembly
“The Municipal Planning Tribunal, bar one, failed the people of Cape Town today by prioritising business interests over the people. They have a constitutional imperative to consider the wider socio-economic impacts of resource-intensive developments and land-use applications that prioritises foreign-owned Tech Corporations’ commercial interests over the pressing needs of the communities they serve.”
– Sherylle Dass, Representative, Legal Resources Centre (LRC)
“We have seen this playbook from US Big Tech companies again and again: turn up in a community, tell them as little as possible about the huge harm the data centre will cause, and leave the people living there to pick up the pieces. It is deeply disappointing that so many tribunal members have been taken in by assurances which are not worth the paper they are printed on. The simple fact is that data centres use huge quantities of resources across the globe and there is no evidence to suggest that South Africa will be any different. Unless Big Tech is forced to change their behaviour, the people of Cape Town will be left to pick up the tab for the richest companies in the world. We are considering next steps on how we can ensure this does not happen.”
– Rosa Curling, Co-Executive director, Foxglove
