Revolutions are powered by people, not by bits and bytes. That's according to Lucky Masilela, CEO of ZA Central Registry NPC (ZACR), the administrator of SA’s presence on the worldwide web.

Today, the over two-decade old ZACR administers more than 1.25 million domain names within the .ZA second level domain name space, including SA’s flagship CO.ZA domain names.

As recently as 12 November 2019, South Africa celebrated its 28th Internet anniversary. “With over 10 000 days of Internet excellence under its belt, South Africa is ready to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by 4IR,” says Mr Masilela. “There is much hype, confusion and anxiety over the impact of 4IR developments on the social and economic conditions of people in South Africa. Within this context, it is imperative to ensure that as a country, human beings are placed at the epicentre of digital transformation,” he adds.

Placing people at the centre of a technology-driven phenomenon like 4IR prioritises such things as digital literacy and employee adaptability within the workplace environment. 

Ultimately, employees need to understand how they fit into the bigger digital transformation process. The tech evolution will carry on unimpeded by these factors and it will be Management’s task to bridge the gap between this evolution and how it prepares its employees to embrace the changes that 4IR and AI brings to the fore.

“Collectively, the ICT role players in the public and private sectors must work with renewed vigor in 2020 to address the low morale and absenteeism of staff, generally informed by slow economic growth and job uncertainty,” explains Mr Masilela.

“Policy certainty and the development of human capital must be our two biggest ICT goals this coming year if we are to properly address the challenges of 4IR if there is to be positive contribution within a transforming economy,” concludes Mr Masilela.

ZACR is a South African-built centre of operational excellence that continuously supports the growth and development of the local web by investing in its people, policies and processes that are necessary for the efficient, reliable and secure registration and management of the .ZA second level domain names under its administration.

ZACR is Africa’s best performing registry operator and a previous winner of the Best African Registry category awarded by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The ZACR was also one of the first registry operators in the world to implement a home grown Mark Validation System for protecting Intellectual Property Rights within its domain name system.