Internet Routes Around South African Gov't

Mister B writes: "In an end-run around the South African government's plans to seize control of the .za domain, administrator Mike Lawrie took pre-emptive action and moved the primary .za zone file offshore. Revealing their naivete, parliamentary committee chairman Nkenke Kekana accused him of destabilising the net! Then again, the opposition think he's a hero. :-) More details on MSNBC."

Comments

It belongs to South Africa

[shandu]

I am always amazed at naivity of fellow geeks when it comes to politics. This whole saga about the <i>.za</i> is about global political manouvering. <br>
Not so long ago there was an <a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/06/11/ 1314224&mode=thread&tid=95">post</a& gt; on here about the US government moving to control ICANN. My understanding of the situation is the SA gorvenment is preempting what they see as an attempt by the US to control the Internet. Their primary objective is to have the <i>.za</i> domain control within SA. Obvoiusly, being politicians they will try to laverage power where ever they can. This is a point that Mike Lawrie missed. South Africa has regulatory and NGO bodies that have the power/resources to chalange unreasonable ministers and the bills they propose. Mr Lawrie did not use any of these bodies, he instead went off to the opposition party and asked them to fight off the gov. Now I read he's taken the <i>.za</i> offshore. Meanwhile, institutions that can bring sanity to this situation are left bemused by this action.
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I know Mr Lawrie is following this on slashdot. I wish to say to him why hasn't he used the aparatuses provided by <a href="http://www.icasa.org.za">ICASA</a> and there is <a href="http://www.sangonet.org.za">sangonet</ a>, I know they do understand and sympathise with your cause (they are part of a powerful lobby within the ruling party).
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To everyone who finds the SA gov actions deplorable; This is not the last such case we will see. Most governments are already questioning the legitimacy of ICANN to control a soveiregn country's domain space.<br>
Next up Fance, who knows?
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<b>What does a past HIV/AIDS discussion have anything to do with this issue?</b>

Yeah, our politicians are morons

[dswan69]

But they certainly do come up with some really funny idiocies.

And sometimes they do something right, like forcing greedy pharmaceutical companies to lower the prices of life-saving drugs.