There was, naturally, an appeal against the Municipal Planning Tribunal's approval of the Equinix data centres - and the City of Cape Town is responding by redrawing the lines of the playing field.

The Municipal Planning Tribunal's (MPT's) 14 July approval for the Equinix data centres has been legally suspended and cannot be acted upon after a formal internal appeal was lodged on 6 August by the Housing Assembly social movement and the UK non-profit Foxglove (represented by the Legal Resources Centre).

The City of Cape Town has publicly acknowledged that its data centre approval process requires reform, with Deputy Mayor Eddie Andrews confirming that the City "is in the process of formulating refined development guidelines for large data centre applications".

Equinix issued a statement that the 327,000m² site it purchased in Cape Town represents a "long-term land bank" and that it "has no immediate plans to develop the site and has not submitted any planning or development applications". The data centre builder pledged that any future development will be guided by feedback through transparent dialogue with local authorities and communities.

There's just one issue: while Equinix frames its commitment to consult as forward-looking, the land-use rezoning and bulk reallocation granted by the MPT attach permanently to the land regardless of whether Equinix ever builds.

Into the foxhole

Asked about its endgame if all the wheeling and dealing turns out...