Standard Bank, Momentum Metropolitan, and two South African universities found themselves entangled in a heated controversy over the governance of Africa’s Internet infrastructure.
Special elections for the African Network Information Centre (Afrinic) board are underway to restore the organisation’s proper functioning.
Afrinic is without a board or CEO after a protracted legal battle caused by an attempt to reclaim large blocks of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses assigned to Cloud Innovation, a Seychelles-based IP broker.
IP addresses are a fundamental part of the Internet’s infrastructure, required by every server and user to connect and communicate globally.
Afrinic is the Regional Internet Registry for Africa and the Indian Ocean region, one of five global bodies tasked with managing the allocation of Internet resources like IP addresses.
Between 2013 and 2016, Afrinic assigned over six million IP addresses to Cloud Innovation in four large blocks.
However, in 2021, Afrinic’s board resolved to reclaim those blocks, arguing that Cloud Innovation was not operating as an IP broker when it applied for them and had failed to use them in accordance with its original application.
In response, Cloud Innovation and its allies launched a barrage of lawsuits to prevent the loss of their valuable resources.
The legal onslaught effectively paralysed Afrinic, opening the door for the Mauritian courts to appoint an official receiver to help restore the organisation.
Unsurprisingly, this also became a source of controversy, and a court application blocked the official receiver from overseeing the elections.
A second receiver has also faced allegations of bias and other impropriety, including claims that he is serving the interests of a particular group.
However, despite attempts to delay or prevent the elections, they have moved ahead with the last voting day on Monday, 23 June 2025.
Several organisations have endorsed candidates for the elections. These include two local industry bodies: the South African Network Operators Group (ZANOG) and the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA).
ZANOG and ISPA endorsed the same candidates, and their list was largely the same as that of Smart Africa, a pan-African organisation that boasts 38 African heads of state on its board of directors.
In addition to national leaders like President Cyril Ramaphosa, the Smart Africa board includes Doreen Bogdan, the ITU Secretary General, and Amani Abou-Zeid, the AU Commissioner of Infrastructure and Energy.
The third set of endorsements came from the Number Resource Society (NRS), a lobbying group closely aligned with Cloud Innovation, established shortly after its battle with Afrinic began.
NRS membership investigation
Lending credibility to the NRS was that it stated on its website that it counted Momentum Metropolitan, the University of Pretoria, and the University of Limpopo among its members.
MyBroadband contacted each of the institutions regarding their membership, and all three said that they were not affiliated with or members of the NRS.
When we asked the NRS for comment, a spokesperson provided the name and email address of the person at each organisation that registered them for membership.
“To clear the air, Momentum Metropolitan and University of Pretoria were registered on the NRS website following documentation submitted by their representatives,” an NRS spokesperson said.
The NRS said the registrants presented themselves as the authorised representative to act on behalf of Momentum Metropolitan and the University of Pretoria.
“NRS reasonably relied on the apparent authority of the representatives and had proceeded with the registrations,” it explained.
Following MyBroadband’s questions to the institutions, they sent cease and desist notices to the NRS.
“Upon their request and on a goodwill basis, NRS has agreed to remove them from the NRS website.”
Momentum’s logo had been removed at the time of publication, but the University of Pretoria’s had not.
The NRS provided similar feedback regarding the University of Limpopo. However, it requested that its branding be removed from the NRS website after the other two organisations.
Back and forth
MyBroadband asked Momentum, the University of Pretoria, and the University of Limpopo about the names and email addresses the NRS provided as proof.
“We can confirm that we are not aware of a current corporate membership or affiliation with NRS,” a Momentum Group spokesperson told MyBroadband.
“While we are aware that a former employee signed up to the NRS website in 2022, the company has no formal affiliation with the NRS.”
The University of Pretoria’s feedback revealed that the person the NRS said had registered them worked at the Centre for Human Rights.
“I do not recall signing up for this,” she said.
“I have engaged with journalists using that email for a conference, but that was in 2023. So, I reckon that email address must have been used non-consensually.”
The date is relevant because the NRS’ records showed that the person signed up on the evening of 28 January 2025.
Similarly, the University of Limpopo found that the NRS’ timelines did not align with their records.
A university spokesperson revealed that the alleged registrant was attached to the Faculty of Health Sciences as a contract employee from February 2025.
“He had his first stint in 2021 also as a temporary contract employee starting from February of that year until the end of the same year,” they said.
However, the NRS’ records showed that the person completed the registration on 12 January 2021.
“In a nutshell, he denies any association with the NRS, nor any knowledge of them, let alone what they do,” the spokesperson stated.
“I can now confirm that the University of Limpopo is not a registered member of NRS. Whoever applied and registered for the NRS membership, did so without any authorisation.”
Standard Bank’s involvement
Standard Bank was drawn into the matter when one of its employees spoke at an NRS event in Johannesburg on 28 March 2025.
Questions were raised when the advertising for the event suggested there could be a formal partnership between the NRS and Standard Bank.
“We would like to clarify unequivocally that Standard Bank South Africa was not a partner or sponsor of the event,” the NRS said when MyBroadband contacted the organisation for comment.
The NRS explained that the confusion arose from an internal mistake by its marketing team.
“One of our guest speakers, who is an employee of Standard Bank, participated in the event in his personal capacity,” the NRS stated.
“Unfortunately, our team mistakenly interpreted his involvement as an indication of formal support from Standard Bank.”