South Africa’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) should nail their proudly South African colours to the mast and ditch the .com URLs that many of them use for their official web presence.
“There’s a sense of renewal in the air and it’s therefore the perfect time for SOEs to revert to .za domains like co.za to show their commitment to building South Africa,” says Lucky Masilela, CEO of ZA Central Registry (ZACR) NPC.
ZACR NPC administers and manages a number of .za Second Level Domain Names, such as co.za; net.za; web.za and org.za. In 2014, the organisation assumed responsibility for administering the three ZAdotCity domain names of .capetown, .durban and .joburg.
“SOEs cannot help build the nation if they’re sending domain name fees overseas,” Masilela adds. “A web presence ending in .za says to fellow South Africans we’re with you, and more than that, it communicates South African pride to the world.”
SOEs should keep their .com web addresses for the purposes of protecting their intellectual property in cyberspace, but a .za domain really should be front and centre for South African SOEs, Masilela says. ‘It’s common sense, really. Imagine a US firm with a .co.za.”
He urges SOEs to undertake an urgent audit of their web-based properties. “SOEs’ presence in cyberspace should look as proudly South African as their presence on the ground does with their South African flags displayed outside their offices,” he adds.