South African Internet Governance Forum (ZAIGF) 2025 — In-Depth Report: Minutes Digest & 3-Line Summary

The 3-Line Summary

On 6–8 May 2025 the South African IGF (ZAIGF) met at Durban University of Technology in KwaZulu-Natal under the theme 'Reviewing South Africa's Internet Governance Progress in the Context of WSIS+20', with the Youth IGF (ZAYIGF) convening the day before.
Deputy Minister Mondli Gungubele keynoted on 'The Global Context of WSIS+20 and its Relevance for South Africa', as the forum took stock of two decades of national governance and set strategic priorities for a rights-based digital future ahead of the year-end UN review.
In the year WSIS+20 would decide the IGF's own future at the UN, this was a national IGF working exactly as designed — feeding a country's self-review into the global process, with ZADNA CEO Molehe Wesi urging cross-sector collaboration 'underpinned by the principle of multistakeholderism'.

Welcome — this is the Japan IGF Support Organization. This in-depth report on South African Internet Governance Forum (ZAIGF) 2025 draws on official outputs, session records and on-site reporting. In a hurry? The three lines above and the diagrams carry the gist.

📍 The UN IGF's NRI record lists '6-8 May 2025, Durban'; per ZADNA, the main forum ran 7–8 May with the South African Youth IGF (ZAYIGF) on 6 May

Conference at a Glance (from official records)

Item	Detail
Official name	South African Internet Governance Forum (ZAIGF) 2025
Dates	6–8 May 2025 (main forum 7–8 May; Youth IGF on 6 May)
Venue	Durban University of Technology (DUT), Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Theme	Reviewing South Africa's Internet Governance Progress in the Context of WSIS+20
Side events	The South African Youth IGF (ZAYIGF) met on 6 May under the theme 'Empowering the Next Generation: Youth at the Heart of Internet Governance'
Host	.zadna (ZA Domain Name Authority), the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) and the South African Internet Governance Multi-Stakeholder Committee

(See the source list at the end of this article.)

Discussion Digest — from the Session Records

Key exchanges extracted from session records and transcripts.

1. A National Stocktake Ahead of WSIS+20 — Reviewing Twenty Years of Progress

Sessions: Keynote 'The Global Context of WSIS+20 and its Relevance for South Africa' by Deputy Minister Mondli Gungubele

With the UN General Assembly's WSIS+20 review — including renewal of the IGF's mandate — due at the end of 2025, the forum set itself the task of auditing twenty years of South African internet governance [1][2][3]
Deputy Minister Gungubele's keynote addressed the global context of WSIS+20 and its relevance for South Africa, explicitly positioning the national dialogue as input to international digital policy [1][2][3]
Government, academia, civil society, youth networks, the technical community and the private sector convened to assess progress and advance digital cooperation [1][2][3]

2. A Rights-Based Digital Future — Reaffirming Multistakeholderism

Sessions: Opening session and discussions on strategic priorities

"The ZAIGF plays a vital role in shaping South Africa's digital landscape. Upholding human rights and ensuring the development of a secure, inclusive, and reliable internet infrastructure requires strong collaboration across sectors underpinned by the principle of multistakeholderism"
— Molehe Wesi, CEO of .zadna [2][3][4]

Host institution DUT's own report framed the forum as a discussion of 'strategic priorities in shaping a rights-based digital future' [2][3][4]
Wesi added that the forum 'provides a dynamic platform for dialogue and collaboration' supporting inclusive policy development — signalling that multistakeholderism would remain the axis of national governance beyond WSIS+20 [2][3][4]

3. ZAYIGF — 'Empowering the Next Generation', Youth Up Front

Sessions: South African Youth IGF (6 May)

On 6 May, the day before the main forum and on the same DUT campus, the South African Youth IGF (ZAYIGF) met under the theme 'Empowering the Next Generation: Youth at the Heart of Internet Governance' [1][3][5]
The youth track begun with the first Youth IGF in 2019 has thus settled into a fixed day-before programme integrated with the main forum [1][3][5]
The UN IGF's NRI record lists the annual meeting as '6-8 May 2025' — counting the youth day as part of the official session [1][3][5]

4. Durban's Turn — Third Stop on the University Circuit

Sessions: (Venue and host-city selection)

After the University of Limpopo (2022) and the University of Johannesburg (2024), Durban University of Technology became the third campus host — and the first confirmed main-forum venue in KwaZulu-Natal [3][4][5]
DUT reported the event as a direct opportunity for its students and researchers to join the national internet governance debate — the university-hosting model working as intended [3][4][5]
National tech media (IT-Online, TechFinancials) covered the forum as mainstream news, a sign the national IGF has entered the public conversation [3][4][5]

Three-Minute Short Talk — Your Questions Answered

Q. What is WSIS+20 and why does it matter here?

A. It's the UN's 20-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society — the process that also decided the IGF's own future. ZAIGF 2025 was South Africa drafting its national answer sheet for that review.

Q. What was actually discussed?

A. A stocktake of two decades: what advanced, what remains. Rights-based digital policy, a secure and inclusive internet infrastructure, and youth participation were the pillars, with a youth edition (ZAYIGF) the day before.

Q. Why should readers elsewhere care?

A. WSIS+20 reset the premises of digital policy for every UN member state, and 2025 was the year national IGFs served as input devices to that review — this forum is a working example of how to use one.

What Is South Africa IGF? (for first-time readers)

South Africa IGF is a National or Regional IGF Initiative (NRI), aligning local internet governance discussion with global IGF principles.

Why It Matters to You

What was discussed here becomes the baseline for national digital policy, platform rules and AI regulation worldwide within a few years. The principles confirmed at the 2025 meeting are the foundation of the "next rules" for the phones, social platforms and AI services you use every day.