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South Africa

Data-centre & digital-infrastructure coverage in South Africa

Updated 24 Jul 2026

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Power Infrastructure

Generation capacity and electrification underpinning always-on compute.

4 stories

24 Jul 2026

Cape Town approves two hyperscale data centres totalling ~174MW

The City of Cape Town has cleared two hyperscale campuses drawing roughly 174MW combined, among the largest new individual loads on the African grid. The approvals land against McKinsey projections that continental installed capacity grows from about 0.4GW today to 1.5–2.2GW by 2030, needing an estimated $10–20bn of investment.

iAfrica24 Jul 2026

Power Infrastructure
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Also in South Africa

South Africa's data centre 'gold rush' risks resource crunch
South Africa hosts about 70% of Africa’s data centres and has drawn commitments from Microsoft and Amazon, with the market expected to roughly double to $5bn by 2031. Reuters reports the build-out is colliding with the country’s electricity and water constraints, raising the question of whether new load competes with households already exposed to outages and drought.
Engineering News (Reuters)22 Jul 2026
Announced South African capacity would double data centre power demand
Cavaleros has plans for 360MW in Cape Town and 200MW north of Johannesburg, while Teraco is targeting 500MW in total, 290MW of it new in Johannesburg. Together the announced pipeline adds roughly 1,000MW to national demand, about one stage of load shedding, and points to a supply squeeze by 2029 unless generation grows with it.
Daily Maverick9 Feb 2026
Teraco starts a 40MW hyperscale build at Isando
Teraco began construction of JB7, a 40MW critical-load facility on its Isando campus in Ekurhuleni, funded through an R8bn syndicated loan and due to open in 2026. It takes the campus to about 110MW and uses a zero-water cooling design, which matters in a market where the water constraint is as binding as the power one.
IT-Online14 Nov 2024

Where South Africa stands

76/100

Rank in Africa: 1 of 54
Region: Southern Africa

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Cape Town approves two hyperscale data centres totalling ~174MW

iAfrica24 Jul 2026

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