City of Cape Town
Cape Town's metropolitan municipal government, responsible for planning approvals and municipal services.
The City of Cape Town said on 4 September it had approved five data centres without naming their operators or power and water demand, and on 28 September its draft by-law proposed rating full-time short lets as businesses.
Last refreshed: 3 October 2026 · Appears in 2 active topics
Timeline for City of Cape Town
Drafted a by-law rating full-time short lets as businesses
Nomads & Communities: Cape Town eyes commercial rates for letsApproved five data centres without naming operators or disclosing combined demand
Data Centres: Boom and Backlash: Cape Town approves five, names noneAppeal stalls Equinix's Cape Town site
Data Centres: Boom and BacklashBackground
The City of Cape Town is the metropolitan municipal government of Cape Town, responsible for planning approvals, property rates and municipal services such as water and power.
Its planning decisions sit where private development meets public infrastructure. That places it at the centre of disputes over power- and water-hungry projects, and over how much residents are told about them before approval.
It also sets the rates that shape the housing market. In September 2026 it published a draft Short-Term Letting By-law, taking public comment until 5 October, under which hosts would need a municipal registration number for each listing. From 1 July 2027 the City proposes to charge commercial rates, around triple the residential level, on any home offered for more than 183 nights a year. Siseko Mbandezi, the City's mayoral committee member for finance, said in September that the by-law ensures fairness in the commercial accommodation sector.
The city withholds data-centre demand figures
On 4 September 2026 the City of Cape Town said it had approved five data centres and was assessing two more, but it would not name the operators or disclose their power and water needs, citing privacy. In a water-stressed city, only the objecting Legal Resources Centre had produced a usable estimate of demand.
An appeal by the Housing Assembly and Foxglove, lodged on 6 August, had already frozen the city's approval of an Equinix data centre; the groups cited thin public consultation and missing water, emissions and noise data. The city's planning role now runs into questions about what it tells residents.
What happened to the Equinix data centre appeal in Cape Town?
Why won't Cape Town name its data-centre operators?
How many data centres has Cape Town approved?
Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Updated 3 October 2026. Editorial standards.