STRATEGIC BLINDSPOT: SA’s data centre boom exposes a dangerous digital governance paradox

Cape Town’s authorisation of two colossal data-centre complexes has ignited the predictable chorus of public alarm.

The arithmetic alone is staggering: an annual electricity demand of 174 megawatts and billions of litres of water in a country already struggling with energy instability and chronic water stress.

Such figures understandably provoke anxiety, yet to anchor the debate solely in environmental strain is to misread the deeper drama. ...