Background: South Africa adopted an economic policy that included both deregulation and privatisation in line with the 1980s’ global trends. Economic deregulation of the domestic air transport market was implemented in 1991 and partial privatisation of South African Airways (SAA) 8 years later, in 1999. This was reversed in 2002. SAA’s poor financial performance since 2012, its insolvency and future funding needs resulted in mixed messages on the future ownership of SAA. Since 2004 the policy of full ownership of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) ruled out SAA’s privatisation. SAA’s escalating losses prompted the Minister of Finance and National Treasury to favour the introduction of a strategic equity partner (SEP) to invest in a minority shareholding in SAA. Objectives: This article examined options for the restructuring of state ownership of state-owned airlines in South Africa. Method: Contemporary privatisation trends and the level of state ownership of airlines in Europe and elsewhere were identified. The preferred methods of airline privatisation and their economic benefits were determined. Results: Contrary to the freeze of privatisation in South Africa, increased trends in privatisation were identified elsewhere. In particular, share issue privatisations (SIPs) on listed securities exchanges were favoured to SEPs. South African Airways’ financial circumstances demonstrate the need to eliminate SAA’s losses and to resolve its insolvency. Conclusion: The South African official definition of privatisation needs to be broadened to include SIP instead of being limited to the sale of shares in SAA. The SIP method of privatisation is ideally suited to resolve SAA’s capitalisation and subject SAA to market and regulatory disciplines.

中文翻译：

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重组南非航空国家所有权的选择

背景：南非根据1980年代的全球趋势采取了包括放松管制和私有化的经济政策。国内航空运输市场的经济管制于1991年实施，南非航空（SAA）于8年后于1999年实现部分私有化。2002年被逆转。SAA自2012年以来财务状况不佳，其破产和未来资金需求导致关于SAA未来所有权的混合消息。自2004年以来，国有企业（SOE）的完全所有权政策排除了SAA的私有化。SAA不断升级的亏损促使财政和国库部长赞成引入战略股权合作伙伴（SEP）投资SAA的少数股权。目标：本文探讨了重组南非国有航空公司的国家所有权的选择。方法：确定了当代私有化趋势以及欧洲和其他地方航空公司的国家所有权水平。确定了航空公司私有化的首选方法及其经济利益。结果：与冻结南非的私有化相反，在其他地方发现私有化趋势有所增加。特别是，上市证券交易所的股票发行私有化（SIP）受到SEP的青睐。南非航空的财务状况表明，有必要消除SAA的损失并解决其破产问题。结论：南非对私有化的正式定义需要扩大到包括SIP，而不仅限于出售SAA股份。