Suspended ZADNA CEO running unopposed for AFRINIC board
Suspended CEO of the .ZA Domain Name Authority (ZADNA), Vika Mpisane, is the only nominee from Southern Africa for the board of directors of AFRINIC.
ZADNA is a not-for-profit organisation that manages and regulates the .ZA namespace, including domains like co.za, net.za, org.za, and web.za.
AFRINIC is the Regional Internet Registry for Africa and the Indian Ocean region. It is responsible for the distribution and management of Internet number resources. This includes IP addresses (IPv4 and IPv6) and Autonomous System Numbers.
Mpisane was appointed to the vacant Southern Africa region seat on the AFRINIC board on 18 July 2018. His term was set to come to an end in June 2019, but elections set to take place in mid-May have not yet occurred.
“Hugely incorrect” for Mpisane to give the impression that he is the CEO of ZADNA
The chairperson of ZADNA’s board, Motlatjo Ralefatane, has told MyBroadband that the organisation was not aware Mpisane was campaigning for a seat on AFRINIC’s board.
Ralefatane said any campaigning on Mpisane’s part for board seats in organisations like AFRINIC was without ZADNA’s blessing or support.
It would also be “hugely incorrect” for Mpisane to campaign for an AFRINIC board seat by giving the impression that he was the CEO of ZADNA, she said.
“Mr Vika Mpisane was suspended for serious hybrid acts of misconduct including mismanagement of ZADNA funds and others,” Ralefatane told MyBroadband.
Ralefatane said that Mpisane was suspended on 5 December 2018 and is currently facing a disciplinary hearing which started in January.
“We are not sure if both AFRINIC and ICANN are aware that Mr Vika Mpisane is undergoing disciplinary hearing.”
According to Ralefatane, Mpisane must disclose to AFRINIC that he is still under investigation.
“We should state that there are further forensic investigations unfolding premised mainly on possible mismanagement of funds,” Ralefatane said.
Vika Mpisane’s nomination to the AFRINIC board
AFRINIC’s nominations committee announced its final candidate slate for the open seats on its board of directors this week.
Vika William Mpisane is the only candidate running for Seat 5 — Southern Africa. This means that barring any appropriate objections raised during the public comment period, he will be appointed to the seat by default.
Mpisane’s profile, which is linked to from the webpage for the AFRINIC board elections, identifies him as the Chief Executive Officer and an ex officio Board member of the .ZA Domain Name Authority since April 2006.
No mention is made of his suspension or the disciplinary matter between ZADNA and Mpisane.
Public statement
In an e-mail to members of AFRINIC’s community mailing list, the nominations committee (NOMCOM) offered the following statement:
NOMCOM used its best effort to attract a satisfactory number of individuals to stand as candidates including extension of the initial nomination period for the Board elections.
Significant hurdles were however encountered in the implementation of the due diligence procedure, causing some delays [throughout] the election timeline, resulting in, among others, having a shorter public comment period.
NOMCOM apologizes for these delays and would like to request the indulgence of the community.
The nominations committee invited the community and AFRINIC members to express any comments about the suitability of candidates for a position on the board position using the comment section provided in the candidate’s profiles.
Mpisane’s candidate page had no comments at the time of publication.
Elections for the open seats on AFRINIC’s board will be held during its Annual General Members’ Meeting, scheduled to take place in Kampala on 20 June 2019.
Vika Mpisane was contacted for comment regarding his nomination to the AFRINIC board, but he did not respond to questions.
Title image from ICANN.
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