The ZA Central Registry (ZACR), the registry operator for the dotAfrica gTLD domain, says a US court has granted its motion to dismiss all claims against it by DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA).

The domain registry said the development is related to "ongoing attempts to stall the public availability of the .africa (dotAfrica) generic Top Level Domain (gTLD)."

ZACR CEO Lucky Mailela said, ""As matters currently stand, the next step in these US-based legal proceedings is to wait for the judge to rule on the ZACR's motion to reconsider his Preliminary Injunction. We are confident matters will again be concluded in our favour."

The domain registry further claims it has more than 60% required support from individual African governments, as well as a legally-binding ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) Registry Agreement signed on 24 March 2014.

According to the statement on 12 April 2016, the Central District Court of California granted a preliminary injunction in favour of DCA which prevented ICANN from immediately delegating the rights to the dotAfrica gTLD to ZACR.

"Subsequent to the preliminary injunction, ZACR has joined the litigation process directly and has requested the judge to reconsider his previous decision," the registry added.

"The reason for the ZACR request is that the judge based his decision on a key factual error. DCA's application never passed ICANN's Initial Evaluation (IE) process and it is unlikely that it ever will because DCA simply does not have the requisite government support and has attracted significant government opposition," according to the ZACR.

In a single line response, the DCA states that the court recognised that it could obtain the relief it seeks solely against ICANN.