Talks are on the cards to resolve the tussle over internet domain administration in South Africa, the parties concerned said on Tuesday.
Namespace ZA — founded to take over the domain administration from an unpaid, individual volunteer — said it was to meet government officials on their differences about who should control the function.
”We basically want the same thing, but we don’t believe each other’s proposals will achieve that,” Namespace ZA representative Ryk Meiring told Sapa.
Communications Ministry representative Robert Nkuna said: ”In principle we agree.”
Meiring said he would request a meeting with Communications Department director-general Andile Ngcaba to discuss the matter.
Nkuna confirmed this, saying arrangements for such a meeting were underway.
Namespace ZA chairman Michael Silber was also to meet National Assembly communications committee Nat Kekana on Tuesday, Meiring said.
The National Assembly on Friday passed the Electronic Communications and Transactions Bill, which includes a rewritten chapter on the governance of the ZA domain.
The Democratic Alliance opposed the Bill, with the Afrikaner Unity Movement abstaining.
Namespace ZA said on Friday the redrafted bill still did not allay its fears of government control.
”Namespace ZA does not believe that the current draft of Chapter X (the one dealing with domain name authority and administration) represents a public-private sector partnership as has been suggested…”
Government participation in domain name administration was welcome but should not amount to government control, Namespace ZA said.
This prompted the Department of Communications to accuse the organisation of expecting Parliament to address only the needs of the rich few. In a statement on the government website the department said Namespace ZA wanted to ”go back to an era where a tiny minority controlled the wealth of the country”.
”Namespace ZA… functions as a forum of a few individuals who are only interested in boosting their unfettered egos at the expense of the entire country.”
On Tuesday, it emerged that the statement had been withdrawn. Nkuna, whose name was given as the contact person at the bottom of the statement, said it had been issued ”by mistake”.
Democratic Alliance MP Vincent Gore was not convinced.
”Their excuse today (Tuesday) — that the statement was sent out by accident — does not hold water,” he said.
Gore condemned the cancelled statement as ”untruthful rhetoric and smear tactics to try and defend the indefensible”.
Nkuna insisted that the statement was ”not the issue”.
The real issue was transferring domain control to an institution representative of all stakeholders, he said.
Nkuna said a Namespace ZA representative had approached the ministry to clarify matters between them. It was agreed that the meeting with the director-general would take place.
”From the beginning we never wanted to fight with Namespace,” he said. According to Nkuna, people were misinterpreting the bill, which he said only gave the minister ”ceremonial powers”.
He said it would not be necessary to change the bill to accommodate Namespace ZA’s concerns, but Meiring disagreed. Meiring would not comment further, saying it was agreed that the two parties would no longer debate the matter in the media.
Gore said all concerned South Africans should voice their disapproval of ”government’s attempt to control the internet” by sending petitions to the president, the Speaker of the National Assembly and the chairwoman of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).
The Bill still has to go to the NCOP before being signed into law by the president.
”The domain name debacle in this country has not been resolved, and this country still faces the real risk of being disconnected from the internet,” Gore said. – Sapa