Namespace ZA welcomes the fact that government afforded it the opportunity to provide input into the South African Department of Communication’s Electronic Communication and Transactions Bill (“ECT Bill”), some of which was incorporated into the Bill’s most recent draft (made available 6 June 2002).
Namespace ZA notes that a substantial majority of public submissions which considered Chapter X of the ECT Bill (dealing with “Domain Name Authority and Administration), reject the proposed domain name authority proposed in the Bill’s original form (published 1 March 2002).
Government participation in domain name administration, which has always been promoted by Namespace ZA, is both important and very welcome. Government control is not. This would send a message to South Africa's trading partners and the international community that, while the world is moving towards de-regulation of the communications sector, the South Africa government is seeking to control and regulate domain naming in contrast to international norms.
Namespace ZA does not believe that the current draft of the Chapter represents a public/private sector partnership as has been suggested. Namespace ZA welcomes constructive proposals for an appropriate public/private partnership to administer the ZA ccTLD, and hopes to engage government in negotiations which will result in the same.
In addition, Namespace ZA does not perceive the current draft of Chapter X to constitute a meaningful departure from the overbearing ‘Governance’ provisions (section 62) of the original Chapter X, which continues to indicate a management infrastructure in conflict with democratically acceptable administration systems.
For the above primary reasons, Namespace ZA rejects Chapter X in its proposed format.
Namespace ZA suggests that Chapter X be removed from the proposed ECT Bill, to allow government, interested parties and the Internet community to engage in productive discussion to jointly determine a true public/private partnership for the future administration of the ZA ccTLD as soon as possible.
In addition, Namespace ZA wishes to correct several factual inaccuracies recently suggested in the press:
No threat has been made by Namespace ZA to disconnect South Africa from the Internet, nor is Namespace ZA aware of any similar threat made by any other party. Namespace ZA believes that there is no current or anticipated risk to connectivity in South Africa.
There are no restrictions to the languages in which South Africans can register domains. Domains can be registered in any language, and many existing domain registrations are in languages other than English.
Registration of a domain name is not the same as Internet access. Government control of domain name administration will not assist in the delivery of Internet access to any sector of the South African community.