SA web administrator marks 32-year milestone
by MTHULISI SIBANDA
JOHANNESBURG – THE ZA Central Registry (ZACR) is celebrating 32 years of service to the local web.
An outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) is overshadowing the milestone but officials pledged to continue ensuring the technical and administrative wellbeing of the entire South African .za presence on the worldwide web (www).
“ZACR celebrates its birthday this year in challenging times where the internet is playing an invaluable role in helping more of us to stay safe by reducing our exposure to the bricks and mortar world,” Lucky Masilela, ZACR Chief Executive Officer, said.
He added, “We are working hard to ensure the domains we manage are always easily accessible in these difficult times.”
ZACR was incorporated as UniForum SA on July 28, 1988.
The non-profit was founded initially to promote open systems and networks.
In 1995, UniForum SA was tasked with administering the fledgling co.za second-level domain within the greater .za namespace.
Pinky Kekana, the Deputy Minister of Communications, wished ZACR well on its 32nd birthday.
“Today marks a very important day in the history of South Africa’s Internet,” she said.
“ZACR is a national asset and a South African centre of excellence of which we can all be proud. I wish ZACR many more happy birthdays for the next many decades to come,” Kekana added.
ZACR manages over 1,25 million co.za domains.
It is also the custodian of the web.za; net.za; org.za as well as the .joburg, .capetown, .durban and .africa domains.
ZACR is a previous winner of the Best African Registry category awarded by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
It was furthermore one of the first registry operators in the world to implement a Mark Validation System for protecting Intellectual Property Rights within its domain name system.
– CAJ News
