The .za is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for South Africa. It is administered by the ZA Domain Name Authority (ZADNA), a not-for-profit organization that governs the .za namespace to ensure efficiency, consumer protection and to foster a competitive domain name industry in South Africa.
A Country Code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) is a two-letter Internet top-level domain (TLD) specifically assigned to a country, sovereign state or autonomous territory. As per the World Intellectual Property Organization, ccTLDs represent the nationality of the internet space for particular countries or regions.
.za is noteworthy among ccTLDs for being one of the few that has voluntarily, and with significant local precedent, adopted a system of second-level domains. This means alongside general .za websites, there are others designed for specific sectors; for instance, .gov.za for government resources, .ac.za for tertiary educational institutions, .school.za for primary and secondary schools and .net.za for network infrastructure.
This second-level domain hierarchy is reflective of the initial vision of the .za TLD, which was conceived not as a commercial space, but rather as a local public facility.
This structure can be an asset for internet users because it allows them to quickly identify the type of organization hosting a particular site. For example, someone browsing a webpage that ends in .ac.za can surmise that the page is related to a university or other tertiary educational institution in South Africa.
Registration requirements differ depending on the second-level domain. For example, while .co.za registration is open to all local and foreign registrants (individuals, organizations or businesses), .acs.za is reserved for tertiary education institutions accredited by the South African Department of Higher Education and Training.
.za has been actively managed by ZADNA since 1995. As of June 2021, there are over 1.3 million registered .za domains, making it the most popular African ccTLD, according to the ZA Central Registry.
Domaining Africa, a news source focusing on domain names on the African continent, highlights how the maturity and stability of the .za ccTLD makes it attractive to enterprises and individuals around the world.
Sources:
1. ZA Domain Name Authority: https://www.zadna.org.za
2. World Intellectual Property Organization: https://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domain\_name/ccTLD.html
3. ZA Central Registry: https://www.registry.net.za
4. Domaining Africa: https://domainingafrica.com/about-us/
5. Department of Higher Education and Training: http://www.dhet.gov.za
