Critical Minerals | A Continental Lens (Video)

South Africa's data centre boom presents a critical infrastructure challenge: can aging water systems and fragile utilities support decades of operation while protecting constitutional water rights? As communities mobilize against new developments and Eskom grapples with surplus capacity, the decisions made today will determine whether digital growth strengthens or strains the nation's resources.

The South African Human Rights Commission has called for public submissions on data centres and human rights, prompting urgent questions about whether the country can anticipate tomorrow's infrastructure pressures early enough to avoid a resource crisis. While Africa accounts for less than 1% of global data centre capacity and modern facilities use remarkably low water through closed-loop cooling systems, critical uncertainties remain about environmental impacts, job creation, and the unknown lifespan of th

On 9 July 2026, the Western Cape Division of the High Court handed down judgment in Van Zyl and Others v Minister of Water and Sanitation and Others (Van Zyl Judgment), reviewing and setting aside the decision by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) to issue a water use licence (WUL) to the Cederberg Municipality (the Municipality).

South Africa faces mounting energy poverty and waste management challenges, yet a transformative solution lies in its organic waste streams.

South Africa's environmental approval process has achieved remarkable efficiency, authorizing 4,861 MW of electricity generation capacity in just 100 days.

Passing a climate law is no guarantee that constitutional enforcement will be the most direct route to accountability.

Research shows that most organisations capture only a fraction of their environmental footprint, with 75-90% of emissions often sitting within value chains that remain unmeasured. This analysis examines the structural blind spots, data limitations, and governance gaps that cause systematic underestimation of environmental impact, and explores what stronger environmental governance frameworks should look like.

South Africa's fashion waste challenge presents a significant opportunity to accelerate circularity in the local textile value chain.

South Africa's extended producer responsibility framework covers paper, packaging, batteries and electronics, but textiles remain unregulated despite contributing over 70,000 tonnes of waste to landfills annually.

This collection examines South Africa's evolving regulatory landscape across direct marketing compliance, government contract remedies, and textile waste regulation, while exploring constitutional interpretation in Ghana...