• Cassava Technologies will be investing R4.5 billion in expanding its presence in the South African market.
• Cassava joined a host of other firms at the South Africa Investment Conference this week pledging their support of the South African ICT market.
• Among the projects Cassava Technologies will be adding 20MW of capacity to its data centres.

The South Africa Investment Conference is currently on the go and on Thursday a number of technology and ICT firms announced investments in the local market.

Among them was Cassava Technologies. This behemoth of a tech firm is made up of various companies including Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Africa Data Centres and Distributed Power Africa.

During SAIC, Cassava joined a host of companies pledging support for the local technology sector. To that end Cassava Technologies pledged a R4.5 billion investment in South Africa.

Where is that investment destined for? Well, according to a press release, Cassava Technologies companies.

“Cassava’s investment pledge comprises key projects, including the expansion of the Liquid Intelligent Technologies fibre network, the extension of Africa Data Centres capacity and footprint, enhanced cloud and cyber security capacity, and the rollout of clean, renewable energy by Distributed Power Africa in South Africa,” reads a press release sent to Hypertext.

According to SA News, this investment will see 20MW of capacity being added to Cassava Technologies data centres in Gauteng and Western Cape.

In fact, all of the pledges announced yesterday are to the benefit of the companies announcing the pledges. Equinix for instance pledged R3.8 billion which is going towards developing new data centres.

President Cyril Ramaphosa highlighted that the pledges made at SAIC will help stimulate the economy in the municipalities where the proposed projects are planned.

“Today’s pledges cover 21 district municipalities across the country. A number of these investments aren’t only bringing much-needed economic activity to these localities; they are also supporting our overall national development goals,” Ramaphosa said.

“South Africa accounts for the largest proportion of Africa’s industrial GDP with a sophisticated and growing ICT sector. The country’s unique combination of highly developed first-world economic infrastructure and a stable macro-economic environment affords businesses like ours a conducive investment environment in which we can partner with government to drive economic development and create jobs,” says president and group chief executive officer of Cassava Technologies, Hardy Pemhiwa.

It seems that the goal here is to stoke investment by highlighting how big businesses are cementing their presence in South Africa.

Is that necessary? While the State Department in the US labelled South Africa as “a destination conducive to U.S. investment as a comparatively low-risk location in Africa”, that was in 2022.

In the midst of ongoing and seemingly unending loadshedding however, it may be best to try stoke the fires of investment. Of course government does need to address loadshedding over the long term, otherwise a bunch of companies have just made pledges that may not materialise.

We remain hopeful that this trend continues and that government is working hard to resolve the woes that push investors away.