AtlasJohannesburg, ZALéa Wilson, Chanelle Pfenninger, and Adele Galli

Systematic power outages, also known as “load shedding,” occur several times a day in South Africa and can last up to 4.5 hours. They have severe economic consequences for many people in the country. The duration of the power outages varies depending on the location and is based on a system ranging from levels 1 to 8. While a few families can afford a private generator, this option remains unaffordable for the majority. In addition, rising fuel prices as a result of the war in Ukraine have further increased the operating costs of such generators. Besides the financial burden, the noise pollution creates additional challenges.

For many people, the only option is to adjust their daily routines to the times when electricity is available, even if this means working at night. Citizens receive information about the scheduled power outages through apps that display the relevant time windows. Despite the circumstances, many citizens remain optimistic. Some families even report positive side effects: during the hours without electricity, they spend more time together and play board games instead of watching TV.

However, the power outages affect not only the economy and daily life but also essential infrastructure. The water supply is particularly problematic. Johannesburg is located about 1600 metres above sea level, so water must be pumped to higher reservoirs. Without electricity, this process is not possible, putting the water supply at risk. In addition, the power outages encourage criminal activity. During the dark hours, some people take advantage of the lack of lighting to steal items such as lamps, metal fences, or other valuables.

At the same time, in Johannesburg and across South Africa, new data centres are continuously being built, consuming vast amounts of electricity. While large parts of the population face power outages, the servers continue to run uninterrupted. What makes this location so attractive for the construction of data centres, despite the instability of the power grid?

Several data centre clusters are currently developing in the region. One cluster is located along the corridor toward Pretoria, while another is situated close to Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport. These locations provide easy access to transport infrastructure, stable electricity supply, and major business districts, all of which are essential for the operation of large data facilities.

One of the most prominent examples of the development in Johannesburg is the Islando Campus operated by Teraco Data Environments. The campus covers more than 125,000 square metres and provides approximately 70 megawatts (Mw) of critical IT load across its facilities. The site includes multiple data centre buildings, named JB1, JB3, and JB5, which is newly developed and is designed to support hyperscale and artificial intelligence workloads. The campus is located in Ekurhuleni, the industrial and logistics hub of the Johannesburg metropolitan area, next to the O.R. Tambo International Airport.

Because of its location, the Islando Campus serves as a major interconnection point for cloud platforms, content providers, and telecommunication networks. This includes a strong infrastructure that can support the demand. The Islando Campus’s infrastructure includes N+1 redundancy for cooling and power systems, which means that additional backup components are always available in case of failure. These design strategies allow facilities like the Teraco Campus to reach an uptime level of 99.999 %, ensuring that services remain always operational.

Several companies have established a presence in the development and management of data centres near Johannesburg. The main stakeholders are Teraco Data Environments, NTT Data, MTN Business, Cassava Technologies, Vodacom Business, and Equinix. These companies provide a variety of IT services, cloud connectivity, and telecommunications. This competitive landscape of multiple operators is a primary driver of economic growth. Furthermore, several international companies from countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan are increasingly investing in the region’s technological development, highlighting Johannesburg’s global importance in digital negotiations in Africa.

The ownership landscape of the data center sector is also shifting as global corporations and investment groups increasingly target the Johannesburg area. A prime example is the 2024 acquisition of Teraco Data Environments by the US-based Digital Realty. This move illustrates how a leading South African company has become a focal point of growing international interest in the African data center market.

The booming data centre cluster in Johannesburg emerged from a layered transformation history beginning with the abolishment of Apartheid and the rise of the African National Congress in 1994. This act reintegrates the country into global economic and technological systems, allowing for foreign investment, technological exchange, and telecommunication development. The Telecommunication Act of 1996 initiated the gradual liberalisation, which was historically dominated by Telekom. Although this process was slow, it opened the door to private operators, fibre competition and ultimately the carrier-neutral infrastructure model. In the same year, the government released a paper on science and technology, “Preparing for the 21st Century”, which aimed to introduce more accountability with measurable outputs, as well as institutional cohesion in science and technology. This paper, although not perfect, marked the beginning of South America’s knowledge economy.

With the turn of the new century, policymakers refined these strategies in 2002 and identified major weaknesses in the national innovation system, such as declining research and development expenditure. The suggested solution were mission-oriented innovation clusters and centralisation under the Department of Science and Technology. This centralisation was then enforced in 2004, when the Department of Science and Technology became an independent ministry, improving investor confidence. With this new established control, the research and development spending reached 0.87 % of the total GDP in 2005, which was consistent with South Africa’s middle income industrial profile, comparable with European countries of similar standpoint. The publication of the Ten-Year Innovation Plan of 2008 aimed to transition to a knowledge economy and strengthen the country’s industrial capacity. This top-down strategy provided the ideological backdrop for digital transformation and later cloud adoption.

A major infrastructural turning point was introduced in 2009, when the company SEACOM connected Southern and East Africa directly to Europe and Asia with subsea cables, dramatically reducing bandwidth costs. With this, the influence of Johannesburg and Cape Town could finally skyrocket. As of 2010, Johannesburg was seen as an enterprise hub, accommodating headquarters of Africa’s largest banks, telecom, insurance, and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The WACS Cable of 2012 finally also connected South Africa to Europe via the west coast. With these multiple cable landings installed, South Africa was established as the most connected country in Africa. Johannesburg skyrocketed in data centre influence, when Microsoft launched Azure regions in South Africa, the first hyperscale cloud region on the continent. Africa no longer depended entirely on European data centres for cloud services. In parallel, the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), enforced in 2021, strengthened data sovereignty requirements, incentivising companies to localise storage and processing within South Africa.

Across Africa the data centres vary significantly in size and capacity. Some facilities are relatively small and primarily serve local businesses or telecommunications providers. Others are large hyperscale facilities designed to support cloud computing, international data traffic, and major digital platforms. The distribution of data centres by size shows the hotspots across Africa, identifying mainly South Africa and Nigeria, where the biggest facilities stand. Many smaller facilities still exist spread across the rest of the continent, but there is an increasing trend toward larger and more powerful facilities capable of supporting global digital services.

The African data centre landscape is shaped by a network of major stakeholders that operate across multiple countries and regions. The companies shown in the stakeholder analysis include telecommunications providers, global infrstructure firms, and specialised data centre operators.

Many of these companies operate far beyond a single city or country, like telecommunications providers such as MTN Business, Vodacom Business, and Cassava Technologies which maintain extensive fibre-optic networks and digital infrastructure across all of Africa. These networks connect national data centres with international submarine cables, regional internet exchange points, and city fibre systems.

In addition to international firms, several African companies are actively developing infrastructure across the continent. Operators such as Teraco Data Environments, WIOCC Group, and other regional providers have built networks of facilities that link major economic centers. These companies often collaborate with telecommunications providers, cloud platforms, and enterprise clients to create highly interconnected ecosystems.

As digital demand continues to increase, this interconnected network of stakeholders will become even more important. By expanding infrastructure and strengthening regional connectivity, these companies are helping to build the foundation for Africa’s growing digital economy.