Cape Town activists appeal 174 MVA Equinix data centre approval

A 174 megavolt-ampere data centre planned beside some of Cape Town’s most water-stressed neighbourhoods is now the subject of a formal land use appeal, with civil society groups arguing the city approved it without the facts needed to weigh its cost to surrounding communities.

The Housing Assembly and technology justice organisation Foxglove, represented by the Legal Resources Centre, have appealed the Municipal Planning Tribunal’s 14 July approval of an application by US technology company Equinix to rezone, subdivide and consolidate land at King Air Industria. The approval clears the way for one, possibly two, hyperscale data centres. Moneyweb reported the appeal.

The tribunal’s decision created a new “data centre” category of land use, a first for the city’s planning framework. The objectors say that is precisely the problem. In their view the tribunal treated the matter as a routine rezoning when what sat before it was a resource-intensive industrial facility whose electricity and water demands fall on areas that already struggle to keep both on.

What the objectors say is missing

The appeal argues there were critical information gaps in the application. It says the submission did not deal with water, emissions, electricity, air pollution, noise or building plans, and that the tribunal failed to weigh the competing interests of communities that were never consulted.

One reason the tribunal gave for approving the application was positive economic impact through job creation and support for downstream industries. The activists say no report backed that finding up.

The proposed facility would sit adjacent to Barcelona informal settlement, Bishop Lavis, Gugulethu and KTC. The objectors point out that residents there still queue for water and go without electricity, in a city that came within weeks of Day Zero in 2018.

“Our members know what it is to queue for water, to go without electricity and to wait decades for decent housing,” Housing Assembly member Kashiefa Achmat said. “Now a massive data centre is trying to jump the queue and take our land, water and energy.”

The groups also say they only obtained Equinix’s response to their objection through an access to information request, days before the hearing. Foxglove co-executive director Rosa Curling said no new data centres should be built in Cape Town unless and until the city has the full facts of the ultimate impact on the environment and critical resources.

Where Equinix and the city stand

Equinix operates more than 280 data centres in 36 countries. The company has said it bought the land in Cape Town but has not yet submitted a site development plan. It has committed to being fully transparent and to engaging with stakeholders when it does.

Deputy Mayor Eddie Andrews, who holds the spatial planning and environment portfolio, said the matter is now before an appeal process and the city cannot comment on the merits or pre-empt the Planning Appeals Authority’s decision.

Equinix can make submissions in the appeal. The company is on record on the transparency commitment, and the appeal process gives it a formal chance to answer the objectors’ case on the record.

A national question about data centres

The appeal sits alongside a broader push for national rules. The Housing Assembly, Foxglove, Open Secrets, Research + Action and Planetary AI Collective have filed a joint report with the South African Human Rights Commission calling for mandatory disclosure of every data centre’s water and electricity use.

That is the crux of the dispute. South Africa is attracting serious data centre investment, and the sector is a genuine economic opportunity for the country. The question the appeal raises is whether the planning system is set up to approve that investment with the information needed to protect the people who live next to it.

The appeal asks that if it succeeds, any fresh application be decided on complete information and with meaningful engagement with the affected communities. The Planning Appeals Authority must now decide whether the July approval stands or goes back.

Source: Moneyweb, Activists appeal City of Cape Town data centre approval