Understanding the stakes of digitalisation in South Africa's sustainable future

The 5th industrial revolution is driving another complex transition as we continue to attend to the global crisis of climate change and its impact on human development. The transition driving the information and communications technology sector is manifesting itself in almost all facets of society – From supersonic warfare, the use of drones for emergency medical delivery, weather forecasting, energy modelling and utility management, self-drive passenger cars, amongst others – at the centre of these applications is the intangible resource called “data”. Stored, processed and transported through energy consuming massive infrastructure of cabling, fibre and data centres

According to the World Economic Forum, economies are racing to attract investment in digital infrastructure, however environmental risks, cannot be overlooked when locating these energy vortexes that underpin our modern economy. What feeds the production line this tech promise remains a critical question: what is the ecological footprint of this build‑out? And how does this digital boom align with the country’s imperative of a just transition, economic diversification, and future‐skills readiness?

South Africa is a new destination for this revolution. Massive investments are pouring into data centres from international cloud providers to local infrastructure firms seeking to tap into Africa’s growing demand for connectivity, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud services and digital transformation.

The Unaccounted ecological cost of the Data Centres

Data centres may look sleek, but they are energy‑intensive beasts. Globally, these facilities account for nearly 2% of total electricity consumption. In South Africa, the market is projected to reach a capacity of approximately 962.4 MW by 2030. To put that in context, it’s a meaningful slice of our constrained grid and heavily coal‑dependent electricity system.

The issue is twofold: first, power supply (mostly from fossil sources) and second, the cooling and resilience demands of data centres operating in a warming climate. Servers produce heat, refrigeration uses more power, and in South Africa’s climate that means extra load, extra diesel backup, and extra strain on an already unstable grid.

If these facilities are simply plugged into the existing grid without deep alignment to renewables, the environmental and economic trade‑offs become stark. However, they can offset their footprint through innovative intervention like being solar powered, using natural cooling, being energy efficient, utilising existing infrastructure like municipal pipeline, stranded assets (like decommissioned power stations) to drive economic rejuvenation, inclusion and sustainability – at least that is the full package of Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa’s call for investment in the data centres.

Digital Infrastructure in the Context of a Just Transition

These facilities can be anchors for digital economy growth. They open pathways for new jobs in infrastructure, maintenance and operations. They also open the way for leapfrog development in cloud, AI, data management, and for exporting digital services. Moreover, as we build out new sectors, we diversify away from mature, declining industries. This presents opportunities for the global south for diversifying away from the primary sector.

Without careful planning, they could lock us into a high‑energy, high‑carbon infrastructure rather than supporting clean growth. If data centres draw power from coal‑heavy sources or require diesel backup during load‑shedding, they undermine the very transition objectives we claim to pursue.

Navigating Skills, Jobs and Diversification

 If approached strategically, data centres can support a “new economy” agenda. Their operation creates a new generation of “factory floor” roles for the digital economy, including facilities management, cooling systems oversight, and infrastructure operations.

At a higher skills level, demand grows for networking specialists, server and cloud engineers, and expertise in emerging areas such as edge computing—capabilities that South Africa’s youthful workforce must be proactively equipped to deliver. Importantly, these roles can be overlaid with green skills, such as responsible power sourcing, energy-efficiency management, and carbon-footprint monitoring, helping to bridge the digital and climate transitions.

Beyond jobs and skills, data centres also present an opportunity for regional economic diversification: rather than concentrating infrastructure solely in major metros, facilities can be located in secondary cities or regions facing industrial decline, supporting economic renewal beyond traditional coal-dependent hubs.

Digital Growth and Climate Responsibility must signal in tandem

 Data centres can support South Africa’s climate and development goals only if all new centres are powered by renewables; designed for energy efficiency and cooling innovation; create inclusive local jobs through favouring local labour and the inclusion of historically disadvantaged groups; promote regional economic diversification through locating facilities in non-metro regions seeking economic development instead of the usual big cities; align explicitly with just transition objectives, and are governed through transparent monitoring and accountability.

 If we get it right, embedding data centres into the just transition strategies and plans, building human skills, diversifying beyond old industry, and ensuring clean power, the result could be transformational. If we don’t, the risk is that our digital leap becomes a green liability.

The challenge is significant. But as the country reimagines its post‑fossil, digital‑enabled future, the choice is of one path that reconstructs our spaces with climate resilient infrastructure that drives sustainable human development or one that fails to heed the risks and seize our opportunity for a net- zero.

Nthabiseng S. Masinge, Senior Communications Specialist in the Presidential Climate Commission.

*** The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Independent Media or IOL.

BUSINESS REPORT