Options for the restructuring of state ownership of South African Airways

Abstract: 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 stateowned 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

Closure and restart as an option for a sustainable South African national airline

Abstract: Background: The non-implementation of certain key initiatives of South African Airways’ (SAA’s) turnaround strategy poses a risk that SAA may not recover financially. Objectives: The establishment of SWISS (previously known as Crossair and Swiss International Air Lines) as a successor airline to Swissair’s liquidation was studied to determine the viability of closure and restart of a smaller successor state-owned airline as an alternative option to a sudden liquidation of SAA. Method: The study is based on a literature review of analysis, official reports and financial results. Results: Three distinct phases for the establishment of the successor airline for Swissair were identified: (1) Financial distress of the SAirGroup (Swissair’s holding company) and the factors which contributed to Swissair’s demise. (2) The transition from Swissair to SWISS. Swissair’s grounding was caused by a liquidity crunch followed the announcement of bankruptcy protection. Flight operations were restarted a few days later with financial support from both the State and the private sector. Some of Swissair’s assets, routes, staff and flight operations were transferred to a subsidiary, Crossair, as successor airline, later re-branded as SWISS. SWISS, however, continued to incur losses despite progressively reduced scale of activities and four restructuring plans. (3) As a Swiss-based national airline SWISS, which became profitable following its acquisition by Lufthansa. Conclusion: The transformation of SWISS as successor airline to Swissair is an option to mitigate the risk of a sudden service disruption of SAA. Serious pitfalls require detailed preparation and funding before implementation. SWISS only became successful following its acquisition by Lufthansa

Juvenile sentence and intervention options in South Africa.

Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2005.No abstract available

Fiction writing as symbolic constructivist inquiry in ego state therapy

The dissertation primarily involves an exploration of art-like research possibilities via symbolic constructivism, concerning research into a therapeutic process from the position of a beginning therapist. Symbolic constructivism within the broader framework of artistic inquiry forms the methodological paradigm. Symbolic constructivism is regarded as a social constructionist research method, and entails using art-like formats in creating a symbol representing the issue being researched. Fiction writing is thereby used in creating a story as a co-constructed symbol, exploring what happened during a therapy process involving issues regarding trauma and dissociation that I undertook with a female client. The client acts as co-researcher in co-writing and editing the story's content, style and tone. The study also represents my reality in terms of understanding theoretical constructs from epistemologically diverse paradigms, therapeutic processes, doing research and writing a dissertation as it is punctuated at a specific moment in time. As a subtext the dissertation may also be described as a narrative about becoming - becoming a therapist, being a person, and the interface between these two (amongst other) selves. In the dissertation, I therefore hope to present a process-oriented account of personal therapeutic development as well.Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2008.Psychologyunrestricte

Assessment of physicochemical properties of a loamy sand treated with biochar and dairy manure under silage corn production in western Newfoundland

Soil physicochemical properties play an important role in crop growth and final harvest. Different agronomic practices can improve soil health through modulating these physicochemical properties. Dairy manure (DM) is a good and abundant source of nutrients in Newfoundland, and both biochar (BC) and DM are considered good soil amendments. A field experiment was conducted at Pynn’s Brook Research Station, Pasadena NL, to evaluate the effect BC and DM has on various soil physicochemical properties, as well as to establish a relationship between soil electrical conductivity (EC) and these selected physicochemical properties. Experimental treatments with four replicates included control, inorganic nitrogen (IN), IN+BC, DM, and DM+BC. Dairy manure was applied at the rate of 30,000 L ha-1, whereas BC was applied at 20 t ha-1 (both were applied on May 23, 2016) and mixed within the top 10 cm of the loamy sand soil (82% sand + 6% silt + 12% clay). Disturbed soil samples were collected from treatment plots on four different days. Results showed no significant (p > 0.05) treatment effects on gravimetric and volumetric moisture contents, pH, ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N), cation exchange capacity (CEC), or EC of tested soils, within each field day. Soil organic carbon (SOC) had a significant (P=0.042) difference between DM and DM+BC treatments only on August 4. However, significant temporal effects were recorded for pH, NH4+-N, and EC – both apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) and electrical conductivity of soil solution (ECw) – across four field days. The decrease of NH4+-N could possibly be accounted to volatilization, uptake by plants, immobilization by microbes, or conversion to nitrate-nitrogen, while the decrease in EC may be due to a decrease in ion concentration from uptake by plants and leaching. No significant differences were observed between the 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm soil depths within each treatment for the tested soil properties. Positive correlations were recorded for EC with SOC, NH4+-N, and CEC (ECa, ECw 0-10 cm, & ECw 10-20 cm, p=0.000). Once correlation data has been validated, the electromagnetic induction method can be used to map the ECa and respective spatio-temporal variability of important soil properties for similar soils in Newfoundland

Сучасні глобальні процеси у світовій економіці та їх вплив на економічну безпеку держави

Мета роботи. Визначення особливостей формування системи економічної безпеки держави, взагалі, та України, зокрема, в сучасних умовах глобального розвитку світового господарства

The geological and paleohydrological impact on the groundwater composition in the Netherlands

The quality of groundwater is vital for both its natural function and anthropogenic use. Surpri¬singly, the geological and paleohydrological control on groundwater composition has received little attention where the petrological composition of the sedimentary deposits forms a major factor on groundwater composition..

The changing global distribution and prevalence of canine transmissible venereal tumour.

BACKGROUND: The canine transmissible venereal tumour (CTVT) is a contagious cancer that is naturally transmitted between dogs by the allogeneic transfer of living cancer cells during coitus. CTVT first arose several thousand years ago and has been reported in dog populations worldwide; however, its precise distribution patterns and prevalence remain unclear. RESULTS: We analysed historical literature and obtained CTVT prevalence information from 645 veterinarians and animal health workers in 109 countries in order to estimate CTVT's former and current global distribution and prevalence. This analysis confirmed that CTVT is endemic in at least 90 countries worldwide across all inhabited continents. CTVT is estimated to be present at a prevalence of one percent or more in dogs in at least 13 countries in South and Central America as well as in at least 11 countries in Africa and 8 countries in Asia. In the United States and Australia, CTVT was reported to be endemic only in remote indigenous communities. Comparison of current and historical reports of CTVT indicated that its prevalence has declined in Northern Europe, possibly due to changes in dog control laws during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Analysis of factors influencing CTVT prevalence showed that presence of free-roaming dogs was associated with increased CTVT prevalence, while dog spaying and neutering were associated with reduced CTVT prevalence. Our analysis indicated no gender bias for CTVT and we found no evidence that animals with CTVT frequently harbour concurrent infectious diseases. Vincristine was widely reported to be the most effective therapy for CTVT. CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide a survey of the current global distribution of CTVT, confirming that CTVT is endemic in at least 90 countries worldwide. Additionally, our analysis highlights factors that continue to modify CTVT's prevalence around the world and implicates free-roaming dogs as a reservoir for the disease. Our analysis also documents the disappearance of the disease from the United Kingdom during the twentieth century, which appears to have been an unintentional result of the introduction of dog control policies.This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final version of this article has been published by BioMed Central: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1746-6148/10/168