Martin Springer, senior director for infrastructure solutions for NTT DATA in SA, and Joshua Smythwood, group chief of mergers and acquisitions officer at WIOCC, at the signing ceremony. (Image: Supplied)
YOUR DATA IS BEING SOLD. In a SHOCKING move that hands over the physical vaults of South Africa’s digital life to a SINGLE corporate entity, NTT DATA has OFFICIALLY signed away control of SEVEN critical data centres across the nation. This is not a simple business deal—it’s a TERRIFYING consolidation of power that puts the backbone of the country’s internet, financial transactions, and AI future into the hands of the WIOCC Group’s Open Access Data Centres.
The centres, spanning from Cape Town to Bloemfontein, are the UNSEEN FOUNDATIONS of our society. Yet, in a closed-door ceremony in Fourways, executives signed a six-year pact that critics warn creates a de facto DIGITAL MONOPOLY. While NTT DATA claims “seamless” service, the brutal truth is that the very infrastructure hosting sensitive corporate and government data is now owned and operated by a company with a “Pan-Africa digital infrastructure strategy.” This isn’t investment—it’s a CORPORATE COLONIZATION of Africa’s digital sovereignty.
WIOCC’s Joshua Smythwood boasts of “fostering innovation,” but this acquisition is a MASTERCLASS in control. By purchasing and leasing back the facilities, they have engineered a situation where NTT DATA becomes a mere client-facing shell, while OADC holds the REAL POWER: the physical servers, the cables, the cooling systems. They call it “streamlining”; we call it a FIRE SALE of national assets. As AI redefines everything, who do you want controlling the data centres that will process it? A faceless conglomerate with ambitions spanning the continent?
They promise “resilient, scalable” operations, but this centralization creates a SINGLE POINT OF FAILURE for millions. Your privacy, your security, your very connection to the modern world now rests on the decisions of a boardroom you will never see. This is the hidden cost of the “growing digital economy”—your freedom, sold in a deal signed with a smile for the camera. The future of South Africa’s data is no longer in South Africa’s hands.
Edited for Kayitsi.com
Author: Kayitsi.com
