SA needs sovereign tech infrastructure, not just foreign server farms on its soil
Daily Maverick | 31.07.2026 20:41
President Cyril Ramaphosa recently celebrated multibillion-rand commitments from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Mastercard, framing Google’s African Cloud Summit held in Johannesburg on 1 July as a landmark victory. Yet, as Research ICT Africa’s work on data sovereignty demonstrates, the physical presence of foreign cloud infrastructure does not equate to local ownership or control. These massive foreign footprints underscore a deep-seated geopolitical dependency rather than technological leadership.
