The City of Cape Town is preparing new guidelines for applications for large data centers. This marks the first public acknowledgment that the approval process requires changes. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the zoning change granted in July for the hyperscale area in King Air Industria has been suspended and cannot be implemented.
Separately, the US operator Equinix told TechCentral that the site is a 'long-term land fund' and that the company has no immediate plans for its development, nor has it submitted any planning or development applications.
When asked about the suspension of the permit pending an appeal filed by housing activists, Deputy Mayor and member of the mayoral committee for spatial planning and environment Eddie Andrews stated: 'Yes. The permit remains suspended until the appeal is concluded and a final decision is made.'
Andrews added that the appeal report is 'currently being finalized' and will then be sent to the planning appeals body, which he said is headed by Executive Mayor Jordyn Hill-Lewis. He noted that since the report has not yet been submitted to the appeals body, it is impossible to name a date for a decision on the appeal at this stage.
Andrews declined to discuss the substance of the matter, stating that the city cannot 'predict the decision' of the appeals body. When asked whether Cape Town would require applications for large data centers to disclose water and electricity consumption data, he replied that this falls outside the scope of the current appeal, but the city 'is in the process of developing refined guidelines for applications for large data centers.' It remains unclear what these guidelines will require or if they will apply to already submitted applications.
Equinix confirmed that it acquired the land in Cape Town, and this land 'represents a long-term land fund.' A company representative clarified that 'the company has no immediate plans for the development of the site and has not submitted any planning or development applications.'
King Air Industria Site
An Equinix representative stated that the company engages with 'local authorities, communities, utilities, and other stakeholders' before submitting any plans or applications, and that 'any future development will be determined by their feedback through continued transparent dialogue.'
This is a more complete version of the position the company took in July when it stated that 'if we decide to proceed with any development,' it 'must be completely transparent.'
Equinix's position does not invalidate the appeal because the dispute is not about the building itself, but about the change in how the land can legally be used. According to section 35(1) of the city's planning by-law, 'the right of use is attached to the land, not the person,' and section 35(4) obliges the successor to comply with the approval conditions. If the permit is upheld, the area will gain rights to develop data centers—regardless of who ultimately occupies the territory.
Information regarding who submitted the application was inconsistent. The King Air Industria site belongs to the King David Golf Club, which leased it to developers, and the zoning change was attributed to the club, Equinix, or a consulting firm acting on behalf of Equinix.
Equinix's promise to consult is also forward-looking, whereas the zoning change is not. This decision was made at a meeting that, according to a dissenting tribunal member, was too superficial for assessment. The rights it creates are attached to the land, regardless of whether Equinix builds anything there or not.
In April, Equinix informed TechCentral of its commitments of 7.5 billion rand for data centers in South Africa and Africa, as well as the purchase of 327,000 sq m of land in Johannesburg and Cape Town for 890 million rand, with 172 MW of capacity under construction and another 160 MW planned.
Housing Assembly and the UK non-profit organization Foxglove, represented by the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), are challenging the municipal planning tribunal's decision of July 14, reached by a 4-to-1 majority. They argue the following:
- The tribunal approved the application without data on water consumption or grid load, without details on diesel generators, emissions, air pollution, or noise, and without building plans;
- These issues were illegally deferred after approval; and
- The cumulative impact of two planned facilities on the site, covering approximately 120,000 sq m, was never assessed.
They also contend that the tribunal wrongly treated the matter as a simple zoning change, whereas its decision created a new land use category: 'data center.' Cheryl Dass from LRC stated in her submission this week: 'Our clients' appeal argues that this assessment could not have been legally conducted based on the information available to the tribunal.'
The dissenting tribunal member, urban planner Wally Johnstone of Macroplan, stated that the public 'has the right to know how this approval will affect grid stability and power access.'
The Fight Against Data Centers
LRC, founded in 1979 by lawyers opposing apartheid, calls itself the largest human rights center in South Africa. Foxglove is a UK-registered non-profit organization whose published sponsors include Open Society Foundations, Sigrid Rausing Trust, and Luminate.
Through the charitable organization Global Action Plan, it initiated the first lawsuit in the UK against a hyperscale data center in 2025. The UK government acknowledged a 'serious logical error' in January, but the developer continued the fight, and the case was only closed in April when they agreed that mitigating environmental measures should be enshrined in a council contract—this is the type of protection the appellants from Cape Town are seeking.
