Domain name debacle could end in court

Andile Ngcaba, the department's director-general, is investigating how they failed to register the site before before running an advert for nominations to the new authority overseeing domain name registration in which an @selection.co.za contact email address was supplied.

Diamond registered selection.co.za when his application to nominate himself to the new authority overseeing domain name registration bounced, and proceeded to set up a website for the nominations, www.selection.co.za. "I registered the domain name on behalf of the government to ensure that applicants will be able to apply for the position, I am in no way trying to sell it to the government or make any money out of this at all," he said.

Ngcaba, however, insists that Diamond acted unscrupulously and could be taken to court. "We publicly said we would be using this domain and because of a delay in registering it he has rushed in. He is cybersquatting. We are going to ask for an interdict preventing him from using it because he is collecting information which is intended for us, not him."

Diamond has offered to automatically reroute any nominations made via e-mail to the department without seeing their content. He has also offered to relinquish the name at no cost.