Cape Town approves two data centres requiring about 174 MW, with water use still undisclosed
The City of Cape Town's Municipal Planning Tribunal has approved land-use applications paving the way for two hyperscale data centres near Cape Town International Airport, a development with an electr...
The City of Cape Town's Municipal Planning Tribunal has approved land-use applications paving the way for two hyperscale data centres near Cape Town International Airport, a development with an electrical demand of about 174 megawatts and an undisclosed water requirement, in a decision that has drawn objections over the absence of basic resource data from the application.
The tribunal voted four to one on 14 July 2026 to approve the land use, subdivision and consolidation application submitted by King David Country Club, owner of the industrial area known as King Air Industria, including a rezoning from mixed use to general industrial.
The two facilities would together cover more than 120,000 square metres and are to be built by Equinix, the US-listed data centre multinational. Deputy mayor Eddie Andrews confirmed the approval at Erf 178931 was conditional, subject to specific requirements set by the panel, and the project still requires separate approval through the Site Development Plan and building plan processes.
The electricity figure is the headline number. The development is specified at about 174 megavolt-amperes (MVA), a measure of apparent power that has been widely reported as roughly 174 MW. Using Eskom's own planning guideline that one megawatt of grid capacity supplies approximately 650 to 750 average South African homes, the load equates to about 130,000 households at the upper end, and considerably more among lower-consumption households.
For a national grid that has only recently emerged from years of load shedding, a single approval representing that scale of new industrial demand is significant.
The more contested issue is water, which the application did not quantify. Presenting for objectors, Legal Resources Centre attorney Kimal Harvey cited research indicating that a data centre using traditional cooling techniques consumes about 25.5 million litres of water per megawatt annually, which applied to 174 MW produces the figure of roughly 4.4 billion litres a year that has dominated coverage.
That estimate is the objectors' calculation based on conventional evaporative cooling, not a disclosed design figure from the developer, and modern facilities can employ closed-loop or air-cooled systems with substantially lower water consumption. The absence of any stated cooling design is precisely what objectors identified as the problem.
Opposition was led by the Housing Assembly, a Cape Town housing rights movement, and Foxglove, a technology accountability organisation, who argued that the application omitted adequate information on water consumption, electricity demand and supply, emissions, diesel generators and fuel storage, air pollution, cooling systems and building design.
Foxglove described the gap as critical and particularly troubling. Harvey noted that Housing Assembly members had experienced Cape Town's Day Zero water crisis directly, watching taps run dry. Objectors summarised their position in submissions to the tribunal by arguing that people cannot eat or drink data, or network and connectivity. Demonstrators gathered outside the Civic Centre as the hearing proceeded.
The applicant's position is that the missing detail belongs to a later stage. Presenting for Equinix, Lisa van Aarde told the tribunal the proposed digital infrastructure would enable Cape Town's digital industry to thrive, and said the King Air Industria developer and Equinix are committed to ensuring development proceeds strictly in accordance with applicable environmental and planning legislation. Water, energy and emissions figures,
the applicant argues, will be provided at the Site Development Plan stage. A procedural dimension also featured: the definition of a data centre was only introduced into the municipal planning by-law by amendment in 2025, and objectors argued it could not be applied retrospectively to categorise the facilities under existing business or warehouse definitions.
The approval lands in a wider South African context of competing claims on constrained infrastructure. Pitso Tsibolane, senior lecturer and CITANDA associate at the University of Cape Town, noted that while generation capacity can be expanded, rainfall cannot be manufactured, and that evaporative cooling consumes water outright rather than returning it for treatment and reuse, a material distinction in a water-scarce region.
He nonetheless argued that South Africa should participate in the global digital and artificial intelligence economy, and should do so with agency, setting terms by demanding transparency and involving affected communities. He also emphasised that the data centre model is capital-intensive rather than labour-intensive, a characteristic that distinguishes it from the heavy industries that have historically justified large electricity allocations in South Africa.
The tribunal voted four to one on 14 July 2026 to approve the land use, subdivision and consolidation application submitted by King David Country Club, owner of the industrial area known as King Air Industria, including a rezoning from mixed use to general industrial.
The two facilities would together cover more than 120,000 square metres and are to be built by Equinix, the US-listed data centre multinational. Deputy mayor Eddie Andrews confirmed the approval at Erf 178931 was conditional, subject to specific requirements set by the panel, and the project still requires separate approval through the Site Development Plan and building plan processes.
The electricity figure is the headline number. The development is specified at about 174 megavolt-amperes (MVA), a measure of apparent power that has been widely reported as roughly 174 MW. Using Eskom's own planning guideline that one megawatt of grid capacity supplies approximately 650 to 750 average South African homes, the load equates to about 130,000 households at the upper end, and considerably more among lower-consumption households.
For a national grid that has only recently emerged from years of load shedding, a single approval representing that scale of new industrial demand is significant.
The more contested issue is water, which the application did not quantify. Presenting for objectors, Legal Resources Centre attorney Kimal Harvey cited research indicating that a data centre using traditional cooling techniques consumes about 25.5 million litres of water per megawatt annually, which applied to 174 MW produces the figure of roughly 4.4 billion litres a year that has dominated coverage.
That estimate is the objectors' calculation based on conventional evaporative cooling, not a disclosed design figure from the developer, and modern facilities can employ closed-loop or air-cooled systems with substantially lower water consumption. The absence of any stated cooling design is precisely what objectors identified as the problem.
Opposition was led by the Housing Assembly, a Cape Town housing rights movement, and Foxglove, a technology accountability organisation, who argued that the application omitted adequate information on water consumption, electricity demand and supply, emissions, diesel generators and fuel storage, air pollution, cooling systems and building design.
Foxglove described the gap as critical and particularly troubling. Harvey noted that Housing Assembly members had experienced Cape Town's Day Zero water crisis directly, watching taps run dry. Objectors summarised their position in submissions to the tribunal by arguing that people cannot eat or drink data, or network and connectivity. Demonstrators gathered outside the Civic Centre as the hearing proceeded.
The applicant's position is that the missing detail belongs to a later stage. Presenting for Equinix, Lisa van Aarde told the tribunal the proposed digital infrastructure would enable Cape Town's digital industry to thrive, and said the King Air Industria developer and Equinix are committed to ensuring development proceeds strictly in accordance with applicable environmental and planning legislation. Water, energy and emissions figures,
the applicant argues, will be provided at the Site Development Plan stage. A procedural dimension also featured: the definition of a data centre was only introduced into the municipal planning by-law by amendment in 2025, and objectors argued it could not be applied retrospectively to categorise the facilities under existing business or warehouse definitions.
The approval lands in a wider South African context of competing claims on constrained infrastructure. Pitso Tsibolane, senior lecturer and CITANDA associate at the University of Cape Town, noted that while generation capacity can be expanded, rainfall cannot be manufactured, and that evaporative cooling consumes water outright rather than returning it for treatment and reuse, a material distinction in a water-scarce region.
He nonetheless argued that South Africa should participate in the global digital and artificial intelligence economy, and should do so with agency, setting terms by demanding transparency and involving affected communities. He also emphasised that the data centre model is capital-intensive rather than labour-intensive, a characteristic that distinguishes it from the heavy industries that have historically justified large electricity allocations in South Africa.