A coalition of South African advocacy organisations has opened a campaign against new server farms built by US technology companies, an early test of whether public opposition can slow AI infrastructure on the continent.
Kashiefa Achmat, who chairs the Cape Town advocacy group Housing Assembly, wants a nationwide freeze on new facilities. She told Rest of World that a proposed campus was attempting to “jump the queue” for land, water and electricity, adding that the pause should apply “across South Africa”.
South Africa hosts more data centers than any other African country, mostly owned by Microsoft, Amazon and Google or operated by Equinix and Digital Realty. Microsoft has committed R5.4B, about $300M, through 2027; AWS has pledged $1.5B through 2029; and Equinix plans $438M. McKinsey expects African compute demand to reach 2.2GW by 2030, roughly five times today’s level.
Housing Assembly and UK nonprofit Foxglove filed a legal challenge in August against two proposed Equinix sites in Cape Town, and joined other groups in asking the South African Human Rights Commission to intervene.
Similar fights are spreading elsewhere, from Virginia and Philadelphia to a New York moratorium on hyperscale campuses.
