document or information, notarisation, acknowledgement and certification, other
requirements and automated transactions, while part two provides a default position
in law that parties to an agreement are free to vary from sections 21 to 26 which deals
with variation by agreement between parties, formation and validity of agreements,
time and place of dispatch and receipt of data messages, expression of intent,
attribution and acknowledgement of receipt of data message.246
The Lesotho Bill is an omnibus document which adopts a similar holistic approach to
the South Africa’s ECT Act in addressing legal issues on electronic transactions,
certification authorities regulation, cryptography, e-government services, consumer
protection, and limitation of liability of service providers.247 Owing to the relevance
and purpose of this study, only provisions which deal with electronic contracts will be
canvassed.
3.1.3 The objectives of the Lesotho Bill
Section 3 outlines the objectives of the Bill. It primarily enables and facilitates
electronic
transactions,
requirements,
removes
authenticates
legal
electronic
barriers
over
signatures,
writing
ensures
and
signature
compliance
with
international standards for electronic transactions, promotes legal certainty in the
integrity of electronic commerce and seeks to achieve technology neutrality of
electronic
communications
and
transactions
and
e-government
services.248
Technological neutrality means that the law should not prescribe the use of a certain
medium or technology, but should be drafted in widest general terms.249
3.1.4 The objectives of the RSA ECT Act
The relevant objects include inter alia, to enable and facilitate
electronic
communications and transactions, remove and prevent barriers to electronic
transactions, create legal certainty and confidence in respect of electronic
transactions, and ensure that electronic transactions conform to the highest
246
Buys (2004: 83).
The Bill available at www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Projects/ITU-EC-ACP/HIPSSA/Pages/In-countryassistance/Lesotho.aspx (accessed 20 October 2014).
248 S3 of the Bill.
249 Jacobs, W. (2004) “The Electronic Transactions and Communications Act: Consumer Protection and
International Contracts” 16 SA Merc LJ 556 at 557.
247
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