Government to buy SA domain name

The SA Government is negotiating the purchase of the internet address SouthAfrica.com from Virtual Companies, the US company owning it, after about two years of legal disputation over the right of a private company to own a country name URL. While the deal is expected to be costly, a government spokesperson has denied there being any truth in statements made last week in the New Zealand parliament that SA had offered $US 10-million for it. The New Zealand government recently bought NewZealand.com for $US 500,000.