South African Airways : state - or public enterprise?
South African Airways, the National Airline of the Republic of South Africa, is but one of the five transport services owned by the State, and operated and controlled by the South African Railways and Harbours Administration, a division of the Ministry of Transport. This thesis, traces the administrative and organizational development of the Railways and Harbours Administration, and particularly the establishment of South African Airways, as a departmental undertaking within the Railways and Harbours Administration; examines other airline ownership possibilities, and submits that the government department as an administrative unit is unsuitable for the entrepreneurial activities of an airline organisation; that consequently, South African Airways should extricate itself from the Railways and Harbours Administration, which is primarily concerned with surface modes of transportation within the Republic; and that ownership and control thereof, vest rather in a public corporation, an organizational device of some importance in South Africa, even for major public enterprises, and enjoying significant advantages.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations