‘We were never consulted’ – Cape Town residents challenge Equinix data centre

Words: Alice Scott / GroundUp

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Bishop Lavis community leader Michael Hoffmeester lives less than three kilometres from the site of where a hyperscale data centre has been proposed for Cape Town.

He said he has been struggling to answer questions from the community about the** data centres**. The little information they have received about the facility, Hoffmeester said, has been technical and complex.

‘We cannot understand them,’ Hoffmeester said.* ‘How can I explain to the community what we were told if I don’t even understand it?’*

Hoffmeester joined about 70 activists and representatives from communities surrounding the proposed site at a meeting hosted by the Housing Assembly at the Central Methodist Church.

Also in attendance were members of non-profit organisations such as Open Secrets and Foxglove, the Legal Resources Centre, the South African Human Rights Commission and Green Anglicans.

​Communities surrounding the proposed data centre include the Barcelona informal settlement, Bishop Lavis, Gugulethu and KTC, where some residents still battle daily with unreliable access to water and electricity.

The application for rezoning, subdivision, consolidation and amendment of conditions, which paves the way for one, possibly two, data centres, was approved by the Municipal Planning Tribunal on 14 July.

Activists and residents lodged a formal appeal in August against the land use approval that will allow US technology company Equinix to build a data centre at King Air Industria.

They say the application should have been rejected because of inadequate information about the data centre’s impact on surrounding communities, in particular on electricity and water resources, as well as emissions and noise.

The appeal has legally suspended the approval until the formal internal appeal process has been completed.

Hoffmeester told the meeting on Saturday that he and other Bishop Lavis residents were never consulted about the project. Hoffmeester suggested that the land for the project be used for housing or to create a recreational area for young people.

Pitso Tsibolane, a senior lecturer in information systems at UCT, said, ‘We just survived loadshedding … For over a decade, you and I had to battle through a full day without guaranteed electricity, and in some households, for days and weeks even. Suddenly, we have enough electricity to power all of these data centres.’

Some panellists challenged the suggestion that data centres would bring jobs to the surrounding communities. University of Edinburgh senior lecturer Mohammad Amir Anwar said that based on his research, he roughly estimated that the proposed Equinix facility would create only about 120 jobs directly at the construction phase and 40 once it is running.

Several activists raised concerns about the prioritisation of such a facility over housing.

The Housing Assembly’s Kashiefa Achmat said the lack of easy-to-understand information about the centre is concerning.

She said they are campaigning for a moratorium on data centre development until there is a better understanding and commitment on how communities’ rights and concerns will be taken into account.

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**Picture: **Alice Scott

Words: Alice Scott/GroundUp

The post ‘We were never consulted’ – Cape Town residents challenge Equinix data centre appeared first on Cape Town ETC.