Cape Town data centre approval

The South Africa — Cape Town Municipal Planning Tribunal approved a land use application by King David Country Club that paves the way for two large data centres totalling over 120,000 m² in South Africa — Cape Town's airport industrial area. The proposed data centres, to be built by Equinix, would require about 174 MW of electricity and an estimated 4.4 billion litres of water per year based on industry benchmarks. The application did not include details on water consumption, energy supply, greenhouse gas emissions, or other environmental impacts, which drew opposition from Housing Assembly, Foxglove, and the Legal Resource Centre. Tribunal member Wally Johnstone opposed the application due to insufficient information, but the majority, including chair Sydney Holden, supported it, stating that detailed assessments would be addressed in the later Site Development Plan. The approval is seen as a step toward positioning South Africa — Cape Town as a global digital hub, but critics argue it ignores critical environmental and infrastructure concerns.