The South African Domain Name Authority (ZADNA) recently issued a notice to terminate the 10-year long Registry Operating Agreement for the commercial .za second-level domains, which comes to an end in April 2022.
This was followed by a Request for Information (RFI) from the industry to enable ZADNA to determine the current skillset and competencies available within the borders of South Africa.
The RFI called for qualified service providers within the ICT sector to provide information for the management and administration of Second-Level Domains (SLDs) and the Registry Databases for co.za, web.za, net.za and org.za.
According to ZADNA, the submissions received in response to the RFI issued in September 2021 were satisfactory. They demonstrated that South Africa has the necessary skills and infrastructure support to provide domain name Registry services for .za commercial domain names.
“This RFI process was insightful as it presented available options and solutions for the Registry services market but also created an opportunity for small businesses to form alliances with big players in delivering Registry services and solutions for South Africa,” says Molehe Wesi, CEO of ZADNA.
“We have decided to open the space for all people, irrespective of their demographic background, to embrace the opportunity presented by the technology landscape. Everyone uses the web everyday, and we don’t see any reason why they shouldn’t participate in the economic activity of the industry that they so dearly support,” says Wesi.
The authority states that the next step of this process is to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) and encourages all interested and qualified parties to respond.
“The RFP for Registry services will be issued in the next coming weeks, and we thank all stakeholders who took time out of their busy schedules to respond to our call for responses,” concludes Wesi.