By MTHULISI SIBANDA
JOHANNESBURG – THE ZA Central Registry (ZACR) has decried its ongoing wrangle with DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA) as denying Africans an opportunity to identify with the continent.

On Tuesday, the Central District Court of California granted a preliminary injunction in favour of DCA, which prevents the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) from immediately delegating the rights to the generic top-level domain (gTLD) “.Africa” (or dotAfrica) to the ZACR.

This temporary ruling means that domain names ending with .Africa cannot be currently offered for registration by the ZACR and its Registrar partners.

“Effectively, DCA has again managed to stall the inevitable, frustrating Africa’s Internet development,” said ZACR on Friday.

“Legal wrangling by DCA has meant that Africans still have no way to showcase their pride and identification with the African continent.”

Nonetheless, ZACR said it respected and abided by the laws that governed its operations and was committed to ensuring a speedy resolution to this matter so that Africans and supporters of .Africa were not further deprived of showcasing their pride in the continent.