By 
By Ross Moyo
An embroilment has ensued between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) which has stepped into the skirmish surrounding the forthcoming elections for the African Network Information Centre (Afrinic) board.
This development is in a fight over the future of Internet in Africa after Icann issued a statement calling for immediate action from Afrinic’s court-appointed receiver, Gowtamsingh Dabee, to ensure transparency and fairness in the elections.
Icann expressed concerns over conflicts of interest within the nominations committee Dabee had appointed, and called for the committee to be immediately reconstituted, amongst other things.
Apparently Afrinic is incorporated in Mauritius. The Mauritian courts appointed an official receiver to oversee the reconstitution of Afrinic’s board and the appointment of a new CEO after a bruising legal battle left the organisation adrift.
As a non-profit organisation, Icann in coordinates the names and numbers — unique addresses that enable computers to find each other online — that makes the Internet work.
Icann is the final highest authority on matters of global Internet governance and in many respects It does not step into regional disputes unless something drastic is amiss.
“Icann is entrusted with ensuring the stable and secure operation of the Internet’s unique identifier systems,” it said in the statement.
“Icann has a vested interest and role in assuring Afrinic’s return to full operations in alignment with its community-developed policies, and in seeing Afrinic’s governance issues stabilised.”
A lot is at stake in these forthcoming elections While many people may find matters of Internet governance dry.
Rocked by allegations of corruption, and behind the scenes, competing interest groups are manoeuvring to seize or retain control of Afrinic.
Motivations vary — from defending commercial footholds in the lucrative IP address market to advancing ideological or political agendas.
Nevertheless , the common thread is clear: influence over Afrinic means power over a critical part of Africa’s internet infrastructure as Afrinic is the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Africa and the Indian Ocean region, one of five global bodies tasked with managing the allocation of Internet resources which include precious Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, specifically IP version 4 (IPv4) addresses, which are the reason Afrinic finds itself in its current predicament.
The African Network Information Center finds itself without a board or CEO after trying to reclaim large blocks of IP addresses that it previously assigned to Cloud Innovation, a Seychelles-based company whereby Cloud Innovation and its allies unleashed a legal onslaught against Afrinic to prevent the loss of their resources.
Cloud Innovation responded to this strange development after Lu Heng, Cloud Innovation founder
Stated a recent curious development in the saga which saw Cloud Innovation added as a “registered member” in Afrinic’s official documents lodged with the Mauritian Corporate and Business Registration Department (CBRD).
Prior, only elected directors of the board appeared in this part of Afrinic’s company registration documents and When Cloud Innovation was quizzed about the amendment, it assured that it was merely a legal technicality.
FILE- In this Wednesday June 13, 2012, file photo, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN, President and Chief Executive Rod Beckstrom, speaks on expanding the number of domain name suffixes during a press conference in London. Hundreds of Internet address suffixes to rival .com should be available for people and businesses to use by the end of the year, the head of an Internet oversight agency said Monday Feb. 25, 2013. The initial ones, expected in mid-2013, will likely be in Chinese and other languages besides English, said Fadi Chehade, CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. (AP Photo/Tim Hales, File)
“I fully understand why some community members were alarmed by seeing Cloud Innovation’s name formally listed — it was an unusual development,” Cloud Innovation founder Lu Heng said.
“I want to reassure everyone that this is an administrative formality born of the legal process, not a hostile takeover or power grab.”
Though Heng assured that Cloud Innovation’s foremost wish was to see Afrinic restored to health and governed by an elected board trusted by its members, many questions remained as Icann raised concerns In its letter to the receiver, stating categorically its concerns reflecting those of many people in the Afrinic community and focused on two main issues.
The First issue was Cloud Innovation’s addition to the CBRD registration despite clear inconsistencies with Afrinic’s governance documents and past practices.
“Afrinic has over 2,000 resource members, and all of them should have been afforded the same treatment in advance of accepting nominations,” Icann stated.
Icann secondly said there were concerns over two members of the nomination committee who had previously issued an opinion supporting Cloud Innovation’s addition to the corporate register.
Previously Dabee announced that he had appointed British barristers to the nomination committee rather than members of the Afrinic community, as was past custom.
Nominations committee usually comprises current members of the Afrinic board. However, the board was now inquorate and embroiled in its own allegations of bias and corruption. The barristers Dabee appointed were:
Simon Nicholas Davenport — Chairman of the Nomination Committee.
Nicholas Davenport, a senior member of the English Bar, who oversaw:
Nicholas George Leah
Priscellia Elouise Robinson
George Hayden Penny
Icann requested that Dabee take immediate steps to reassure Afrinic’s members and its community that the election process is fair.
This includes addressing the nomination period, and concerns over electronic voting registration. Specifically, Icann demanded that the receiver:
Providing Afrinic members with complete transparency in matters related to registration of members in the CBRD record.
Immediately reconstitute the nomination committee for its remaining tasks.
Provide public documentation and an assessment of remedial steps being taken to comprehensively assess and alleviate the adverse impacts caused on the election.
The call for nominations was open from 12 May to 26 May 2025, and the deadline for registration for electronic voting was extended to 5 June 2025.
Nevertheless numerous Afrinic members raised concerns about the onerous registration process, as it required notarised documents to be submitted with Industry stakeholders revealing that such notarisation costs were between R700 and R1,500 with Icann calling for the receiver to address concerns over the nominations and voting registration process, it is unclear if these will be amended and further extended.
“Icann is committed to a swift, fair, and transparent election process — one that is free from any imbalance, undue pressure, or perception of impropriety to help restore stability and trust to Afrinic’s governance,” the organisation said.
Comments