Vika Mpisane

Vika is from South Africa. He was born in Mthwalume, KwaZulu-Natal Province in South Africa in September 1973. He completed all of his primary education in Esbanini Primary School in Mthwalume between 1980 and 1986. His secondary education was completed in Luthuli High School in Turton, Mthwalume, between 1987 and 1991. He proceeded to study law at the then University of Natal (now University of KwaZulu-Natal) - Durban campus - in 1993. He graduated in early 1997 with a B.Proc degree and proceeded to graduate for his honours law degree (LLB) at the same University in early 1999. A staunch soccer fan and player from his youth, he represented the Under 23 and senior team of the University of Natal's soccer team.

At the University of Natal-Durban, Vika commenced his career into politics, policy development and transformation. He was a member of the South African Student Congress - SASCO - the student wing of the African National Congress. He was elected into the Student Representative Council (SRC) of the University of Natal-Durban in August 1995 and served until September 1997. He was the Transformation Officer of the SRC, and also acted as the Vice President of the SRC in 1996. This portfolio allowed him to drive student participation in the transformation of higher education in South Africa, the overall purpose of which was to transform higher education to allow for increased admission of Black students into South African universities. As a Transformation Officer, he also accounted to the SRCs in the Pietermaritzburg and the Nelson Mandela Medical School campuses of the University of Natal. As an SRC member, he represented the student community in various University structures, including the the Board Transformation Forum, University Forum and other special task teams that sort to increase support to students from the Black community. Upon completion of his studies, he was employed as the Transformation Officer of the University and was responsible for coordinating transformation initiatives of the University.

Vika left the University of Natal in September 2000 to join the Johannesburg-based National Economic Development and Labour Council (http://new.nedlac.org.za/) as its Programmes Director. He ran NEDLAC's operations and oversaw its chambers of negotiation between the South African Government, organised labour, organised business and civil society. He left NEDLAC in September 2002 for private business until July 2004 when he joined Cortell Consulting (http://www.cortell.co.za/) as its public sector Marketing Manager. In April 2006 he joined the .za Domain Name Authority (ZADNA) as its General Manager. In October 2013, he became the CEO of ZADNA.

Through his association with ZADNA, he has served in various local, regional and international Internet Governance structures. In June 2006, Vika was elected into the the Executive Committee of African Top Level Domains (AfTLD) where he served as its Secretary and Treasurer until July 2009 when he was elected as President/Chairman of the AfTLD Board. He served as AfTLD Chair until July 2012 when he stepped down from AfTLD. In 2009, Vika was also elected into the ccNSO Council of ICANN (https://www.icann.org/) as one of the 3 Councillors representing Africa. He continued in the ccNSO Council until July 2016 when he stepped own from the Council. In his association with the ccNSO Council, he participated in various structures, including the ccNSO Finance Working Group (as Deputy Chairman) and the ccNSO Programme Working Group (as Deputy Chairman).

Some of Vika's notable achievements in his association with ZADNA and the global Internet community include establishing AfTLD's organisational machinery, setting up ZADNA operations, business model, and strategic and business plans, and leading negotiations for the establishment of the ZA Central Registry - ZACR - (https://www.registry.net.za/). He also led South Africa's and African Internet community efforts to have the African Union Commission (https://au.int/en/commission) endorse ZACR's application to ICANN for the right to launch the dotAfrica (http://africainonespace.org/ and http://registry.africa/). He also secured the support of ZACR by the South African Government for application to ICANN to launch the dotCapeTown (http://nic.capetown/), dotDurban (http://nic.durban/) and dotJoburg (http://nic.joburg/) Top Level Domains (TLDs). These 3 TLDs were launched in 2014, while dotAfrica was launched in 2017. He was a member of Project Teams that oversaw the ICANN application process for these 4 TLDs. Vika became a Member of the dotAfrica Steering Committee from 2012.