Negotiations are under way for the transfer of the .za domain name from the current administrator to the new company set up by the Department of Communications, according to director-general Andile Ngcaba.
"The current administrator of the .za domain name, Mike Lawrie, is very in favour of the process of transferring the domain name to national control and we expect this to happen towards the end of the year," Ngcaba says.
He was replying to questions at the department`s media briefing in Parliament last week, when communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri announced that the company had been registered in terms of the Companies Act and named the members of the board.
The nine-member board will be chaired by Hashmukh Gajjar and the other members are Preeta Bhagattjee, Sonwabo Eddi Funde, Richard Heath, Xoliswa Kakana, Alan Levin, Michael Silber and Victor Wilson.
According to Matsepe-Casaburri, the board will appoint a chief executive officer to manage the authority and an implementation team is working on ministerial policy directions to facilitate the transfer of the domain name space from the current .za administrator and to guide the authority in the drafting of regulations.
Los Angeles-company ICANN currently administers the .za domain name database through its Aina database and it has to be satisfied that all conditions have been met in order for the database to be transferred to SA control.
"ICANN has been extremely helpful and recognises the need for the transfer of the domain name space to SA control," Ngcaba says.
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