Former South African president, Nelson Mandela.
by AKANI CHAUKE
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – THE South Africa Central Registry (ZACR) is celebrating three years since the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) granted it the right to administer the .africa geographic top-level domain name (gTLD).
Officials described this occasion, on February 11, 2017, a historic moment for the digital freedom of the African continent.
The day coincides with the release of anti-apartheid hero, Nelson Mandela (now late) who went on to become the first president of a democratic South Africa.
“Madiba (Mandela) unlocked our real-world freedom 30 years ago while .africa is setting Africans free in cyberspace,” said Lucky Masilela, Chief Executive Officer of ZACR.
“The .africa domain enables freedom in the virtual world because of the enormous opportunities for advancement that it unlocks,” he added.
ZACR has added 23 000 .africa domain registrations
The launch of the .africa domain name space is hailed as one of the most important African technology initiatives since the Abuja and Oliver Tambo Declarations a decade ago.
These saw African ministers reaffirming the fact that information and communication technologies (ICTs) are key to Africa’s development and economic competitiveness and can help attain the African Union’s Vision and Millennium Development Goals.
– CAJ News