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.