President Thabo Mbeki will on Wednesday sign the Electronic Communication and Transactions Bill into law, his office said on Tuesday.
The bill includes a chapter about the control of the ZA domain on the internet, about which a large section of the industry has complained.
In a petition submitted to the Presidency earlier this month, the Information Technology Lawyers’ Forum (ITLF), a voluntary association of legal practitioners involved or interested in IT and e-commerce legal practice, called on Mbeki to either refer the entire bill back to be revised, or to sign only certain chapters.
”While some chapters are well drafted, many are flawed in a manner which is technical, legal and logical in nature (as opposed to political),” the ITLF said.
”We believe that the urgency of promulgating the Bill’s provisions which are beyond reproach…should not be used as leverage to pass the faulted provision…
”We therefore ask you to exercise your discretion, and sign only those chapters that are reasonable, necessary and urgent.
”Alternatively, we ask that your refer the entire Bill back to the drafting table for revision, to protect the people of South Africa from what may otherwise prove to be a failure of responsible, democratic government,” the petition says.
By Tuesday, it was claimed on the website with the petition that 366 supporting signatures had been received thus far.
Mike Lawrie, the administrator of the ZA domain, and Namespace ZA, the organisation formed to take over that task from him, have claimed that the Bill provides for government control of domain administration, instead of government participation.
According to both parties it was contrary to international norms.
Communications ministry representative Robert Nkuna, however, claimed the real issue was transferring domain control to an institution representative of all stakeholders.
Asked about the Bill at a news conference last week, Mbeki said he had not received any advice that any element of it was unconstitutional. – Sapa