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No. 23708
Act No. 25,2002
GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 2 AUGUST 2002
ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS AND
TRANSACTIONS ACT, 2002
“registry” means an entity licensed by the Authority to manage and administer a
specific subdomain;
“repository”meansthe
primary register of the informationmaintained by a
registry;
“second level domain” means the subdomain immediately following
the ccTLD;
“SMMEs” meansSmall,Medium
and MicroEnterprisescontemplated
in the
Schedules to the Small Business Development Act, 1996 (Act No. 102 of 1996);
“subdomain” means any subdivision of the .za domain name space which begins
at the second level domain;
“TCP/IP” means the Transmission Control Protocol Internet Protocol used by an
information system to connect to the Internet;
“TLD” means a top level domain of the domain name system;
“third party”, in relation to a service provider, means a subscriber to the service
provider’s services or any other user of the service provider’s services or a user of
information systems;
“transaction”meansa
transaction of eitheracommercial
or non-commercial
nature, and includes the provision of information and e-government services;
“universalaccess”means
access byall citizens of the Republic to Internet
connectivity and electronic transactions;
“WAP”means Wireless ApplicationProtocol, an open international standard
developed by the Wireless Application Protocol Forum Limited, a company
incorporated in terms of the laws of the United Kingdom, for applications that use
wireless communication and includes Internet access from a mobile phone;
“web page” means a data message on the World Wide Web;
“web site” means any location on the Internet containing a home page or web
page;
“World Wide Web” means an information browsing framework that allows a user
to locate and accessinformationstored
on aremotecomputer
and to follow
references from one computer to related information on another computer; and
“.za domain name space” means the .za ccTLD assigned to the Republic according
to the two-letter codes in the International Standard I S 0 3166-1.
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Objects of Act
2. (1) The objects of this Act are to enable and facilitate electronic communications
and transactions in the public interest, and for that purpose torecognise the-importance of the information-economy for the economic and
social prosperity of the Republic;
promote universal access primarily in underserviced areas;
promote the undcrstanding and, acceptance of and growth in the number of
electronic transactions in the Republic;
remove and prevent barriers to electronic communications and transactions in
the Republic;
promote legal certainty and confidence in respect of electronic communications and transactions;
promote technology neutrality in the application of legislation to electronic
communications and transactions;
promote e-government services and electronic communications and transactions with public and private bodies, institutions and citizens;
ensure that electronictransactions in the Republic conform to the highest
international standards:
encourage investment and innovation in respect of electronic transactions in
the Republic;
develop a safe, secure and effective environment for the consumer. business
and the Government to conduct and use electronic transactions;
promote the development of electronic transactions services which are
responsive to the needs of users
consumers;
and
ensure that, in relation to the provision of electronic transactions services,the
special needs of particular communities and, areas and the disabled are duly
taken into account;
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