Equinix Data Centre Municipal Planning Tribunal

The Legal Resources Centre will represent the Housing Assembly and Foxglove as they call for full disclosure of the proposed development’s socioeconomic and community impact.

Members of the Housing Assembly will demonstrate outside the Cape Town Civic Centre on Tuesday, 14 July, as the City of Cape Town Municipal Planning Tribunal hears objections concerning a proposed 174 MVA hyperscale data centre development at King Air Industria.

The demonstration will take place outside the Civic Centre at 12 Hertzog Boulevard, while the Tribunal meeting will be conducted online. The Legal Resources Centre will appear before the Tribunal as legal counsel for the Housing Assembly and Foxglove.

The Housing Assembly is a social movement representing more than 20 communities across the Western Cape. Together with Foxglove, a technology justice organisation based in the United Kingdom, it has objected to the land use application associated with the proposed data centre development.

The objection does not ask the City to disregard the role that digital infrastructure may play in South Africa’s development. It asks the City not to make a decision of this scale without the information needed to understand who may be affected, what resources the development will require and what environmental consequences may follow.

Critical information remains unavailable

The proposed development forms part of plans for a 174 MVA data centre facility at King Air Industria, an industrial development on land owned by the King David Golf Club.

The Housing Assembly and Foxglove argue that the publicly available application does not provide adequate information about water consumption, electricity demand, emissions, diesel generators and fuel storage, air pollution, cooling systems, and the design and scale of the proposed buildings.

The application is supported by a 24 page motivational letter, but the objectors say it does not provide enough detail for the City, affected communities or interested parties to assess the development’s likely effects. They have asked the City to decline to consider the application in its current form and to require the developers to provide the missing information.

This is particularly important because the project is expected to involve two large data centre buildings with a combined projected electricity requirement described in the available documents as up to 174 MVA or 174 MW. These units measure different aspects of electrical demand and cannot be used interchangeably.

Water and electricity cannot be treated as an afterthought

The absence of clear information about water and electricity consumption is a central concern for communities that experienced Cape Town’s severe drought during 2017 and 2018, and the ongoing threat of loadshedding.

During the Day Zero crisis, the City came close to shutting off most household water supplies as dam levels fell dangerously low. Many Housing Assembly members continue to live with insecure or inadequate access to water, sanitation, housing and electricity.

Data centres at the size of this proposed Equinix development require an enormous amount electricity to power their servers. In turn the servers require a cooling system to keep the servers safe from overheating. The cooling technology relies on a steady supply of water in order to operate. Without information about the proposed cooling system, water source and expected consumption, communities cannot assess whether the development may place additional pressure on Cape Town’s water and electricity supply infrastructure.

These questions are not abstract for people who have had their power turned off, watched electricity tariffs soar above affordability and their taps run dry, travelled long distances to collect water or lived in homes without reliable access to basic services.

Communities demand meaningful participation

The Housing Assembly’s demonstration will draw attention to the people who may carry the consequences of the City’s planning decisions.

Residents have raised concerns that they first learnt about the proposed development through community organisations and media reporting rather than through a meaningful public engagement process. Community representatives have called for residents to be told what infrastructure the data centre will require, what its effects may be and whether surrounding communities will receive any benefit.

Meaningful public participation requires more than giving the public an opportunity to submit comments. People must first have access to complete, understandable and relevant information. As noted by the Constitutional Court in 2006, “all interested parties, not only those whose rights stand to be adversely affected, are entitled to know what government is doing, and as concerned citizens, to have an appropriate say.”

Without that information, affected communities cannot properly engage with claims about water, electricity, pollution, traffic, land use or local development.

The LRC’s role

The Legal Resources Centre will present the objections of the Housing Assembly and Foxglove to the Municipal Planning Tribunal.

The LRC’s submissions will focus on whether the City can properly consider the land use application when important information about the scale and consequences of the proposed development remains absent from the public record.

The objectors maintain that the City should not approve or advance the application in its present form. They are asking the City to require sufficient information to allow for a rational, informed and transparent planning process.

The matter raises important questions about access to information, meaningful public participation and accountability in municipal decision making. It also concerns how scarce resources are allocated in a city where many residents continue to wait for secure housing and reliable basic services.

Draft quotations for approval

Housing Assembly spokesperson Kashiefa Achmat said:

“Communities cannot be excluded from decisions that may place further pressure on the water, electricity and land on which they depend. Many of our members remember Day Zero and continue to live without secure access to housing and basic services. We are demonstrating because the City must hear the voices of the people who may carry the consequences of this development.”

Legal Resources Centre Programme Lead: Digital Justice, Sherylle Dass, said:

“Digital development cannot take place outside the Constitution or beyond public scrutiny. The City must have enough information to assess the proposed development properly, and communities must be given a meaningful opportunity to understand and respond to its possible effects. Our clients are asking for a transparent and lawful process before any decision is made.”

Foxglove Co Executive Director Rosa Curling said:

“No development of this scale should proceed on the basis of incomplete information. The public deserves clear answers about water, electricity, emissions, pollution, and the proposed buildings. The City should require those answers before it considers approving the development.”

A rapidly growing sector

The dispute arises as South Africa seeks to expand its digital infrastructure.

During the 2026 State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that 55 data centres had already been built in South Africa and that more than R50 billion in digital infrastructure investment was expected over the following three years.

Investment in digital infrastructure may support connectivity, economic activity and technological development. However, the speed and scale of this growth make effective planning, transparency and public oversight increasingly important. It is of crucial importance that the government prioritises the drafting of a legislative and regulatory framework of the digital ecosystem before it starts to rapidly develop the sector.

Internationally, communities have raised similar concerns about the effects of large data centres on electricity supply, water resources, pollution and local infrastructure. The Cape Town objection forms part of a wider debate about whether planning systems are keeping pace with the expansion of resource intensive digital infrastructure.

Equinix’s public response

Equinix has stated that it completed the purchase of land in Cape Town but had not itself submitted the planning applications connected to the site. It said that, should it proceed with a development, it would provide detailed information to relevant stakeholders and remain transparent.

The Housing Assembly and Foxglove’s objection concerns the land use application connected to the proposed data centre development at King Air Industria and the information presently available to the public through that process.

Demonstration and Tribunal details

Members of the Housing Assembly will demonstrate outside the Civic Centre at 12 Hertzog Boulevard, Cape Town, on Tuesday, 14 July 2026. The time of the demonstration will be confirmed. Members of the media are invited to attend, and Housing Assembly and Foxglove spokespeople will be available for interviews before, during and after the Tribunal proceedings.

The City of Cape Town Municipal Planning Tribunal will consider the objections to the proposed development online on Tuesday, 14 July 2026. The meeting can be accessed through Microsoft Teams at: