Summary

  • Filed, not granted: on 8 October 2025 the Receiver filed an "Application for Termination of Receivership" before the Bankruptcy Division of the Supreme Court of Mauritius, cause number SC/COM/MOT/000757/2025, seeking termination of the receivership of AfriNIC Ltd and his own release; AFRINIC's instruments certify the filing and the pendency, never an outcome.
  • Heard, judgment awaited — since 12 March 2026, per AFRINIC's member update of that date; as of 27 September 2026 no published judgment surfaces in the retrievable record.
  • One recital of consent, one silence: the 24 August 2026 CEO-Designate communiqué records board action taken "with the consent of the Receiver"; the 28 August 2026 Appeal Committee constitution, as retrieved, records none.
  • Adjacent, not decisive: the 14 May 2026 interim order against Cloud Innovation Ltd and ICANN's admission as intervenor in winding-up petition SC/COM/PET/000508/2025 leave the discharge application untouched.
  • The recognition layer is in transition too: ICANN fully recognized AfriNIC on 8 April 2005 under ICP-2; the NRO's successor framework remains a FINAL DRAFT dated 1 September 2026.

What the first instrument certifies

The chain opens with a joint communiqué of the AFRINIC Board and the Receiver, published 13 October 2025: "On 08 October 2025, the Receiver filed his report titled 'Application for Termination of Receivership' before the Supreme Court (Bankruptcy Division) of Mauritius, thereby initiating the process for his formal release. A decision of the Honourable Court is currently awaited." Two operative words carry it: "filed" and "awaited". The instrument certifies that a process began and that nothing had been decided; it also records that, until formal discharge, the Receiver agreed to continue supporting AFRINIC following the appointment of Directors.

AFRINIC's formal notice of 5 November 2025 adds the skeleton: the application seeks "(i) the termination of the receivership of the African Network Information Centre (AfriNIC) Ltd and (ii) the release/discharge of the Receiver", bears cause number SC/COM/MOT/000757/2025, and was "fixed for hearing to the 26 November 2025". It is a statement of relief sought — a request, not a grant — and it discloses the only member-participation window the record shows: a Court Order of 29 October 2025 required members seeking to intervene to apply for leave by 12 November 2025.

Heard, judgment awaited — for more than six months

The pivotal status statement is AFRINIC's member update of 12 March 2026: "CIL has objected to the current Receiver's application to be discharged, alongside calls for the appointment of yet another receiver. As matters presently stand, the receiver's application for discharge has been heard, and judgment is now awaited." The objector, Cloud Innovation Ltd (CIL), is the same party whose July 2025 winding-up petition (SC/COM/PET/000508/2025) brought the liquidation proceeding amid which the registry operates. The same update certifies a live dispute inside the receivership: AFRINIC states the Receiver had been approving IP address allocations and assignments that properly went through the application process, consistent with ICP-2 and prevailing policies; CIL argued this was outside his authority — both positions attributed, neither adjudicated in the retrieved record. It also records the designation of AFRINIC as a Declared Company under the Companies Act, stated to remain in force, and Board priorities that include collaborating with the court-appointed receiver pending formal discharge. All of it is a party statement: it establishes what the organisation says, not a court finding.

Adjacent rulings that decide nothing in the exit

AFRINIC's court update of 15 May 2026 records that "the Supreme Court of Mauritius has, on 14 May 2026, issued an Interim Order against Cloud Innovation Ltd following the publication of false and misleading statements disseminated through its subsidiary, Larus Ltd", and that in the same proceedings the Court allowed ICANN to intervene as a party in petition SC/COM/PET/000508/2025. One interim order against the petitioner; one change in the parties; neither touches whether the receivership ends. AFRINIC's characterisation is its own; the underlying orders were not directly inspectable from the retrieved record.

Consent in operation, consent in silence

Four days in August 2026 window the control structure. On 24 August, the Board announced, jointly with the Receiver: "The Board of the African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC), with the consent of the Receiver, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Mike Silber as CEO Designate. Mr Silber will assume office as Chief Executive Officer of AFRINIC on 1 January 2027." The consent is recorded in operation over one specific act — a recruitment led by a CEO Search Committee initiated by both parties. On 28 August, the Board constituted the Appeal Committee — Silvio Cabral, Sami Salih, Oluwaseun Ojedeji, Nitin Kelawon Sookun, Eddy Lareine, appointments "effective immediately for a term running until 31 December 2026" — and the retrieved text displays no consent recital. The asymmetry is a fact about the instruments, not a finding about the law: whether it marks a boundary of the Receiver's approval function or merely drafting variation, the record does not say. What it does say is narrower and firmer: as of 24 August 2026, the Receiver's consent was still being recorded over board action.

Recognition in 2005, a draft successor in 2026

The domestic receivership sits inside a coordination layer with its own pending transition. ICANN's Board fully approved and recognized AfriNIC as a regional internet registry on 8 April 2005, after provisional recognition on 30 September 2004 and completion of the transition plan in conformance with ICP-2. The NRO's Governance Document for the Recognition, Operation, and Derecognition of Regional Internet Registries, version 3, dated 1 September 2026 and labelled FINAL DRAFT, "succeeds" ICP-2, "adopted on 4 June 2001", and sets out recognition of new RIRs, operating obligations, and derecognition criteria and procedures. It is a draft, not adopted policy: prospective, and without effect on the Receiver's authority in Mauritius today.

The record at publication time

The currency check is an absence, and a bounded one. The retrieved extract of AFRINIC's public news index shows the 24 August 2026 CEO-Designate item and the 12 March 2026 member update, no dated item newer than 24 August 2026, and no announcement of a judgment or order discharging the Receiver — a bounded absence from a partial crawl of one index, not proof that no disposition exists. The registry object this audit tracks is recorded in BTW's directory as CTO AFRINIC.

The consequence stays bounded. If a judgment in SC/COM/MOT/000757/2025 is published, the chain closes and the registry's domestic control surface re-anchors in whichever branch its operative words describe. Until then, the 2026 instruments sit inside an unresolved window, and the only statements of decision in the record are the ones stating, in so many words, that nothing has been decided.

Reading the chain, keep three categories apart: court findings (none directly inspectable here), party statements (all of the above), and the questions the record answers — what was sought, what was heard — against the one it does not: what was decided.