Review of postal reform in South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The political transition that has occurred in South Africa can be viewed as thecountry's first liberalisation process. In order to ensure sustainable politicaldemocracy, it must be accompanied by a second liberalisation, socio-economicdevelopment. The new government recognised that the second liberalisationentails an economic transformation process that will re-gear the economy towardsattaining the objectives of economic growth and human development. Therestructuring of state owned enterprises (SOEs) has emerged as one of the majortrends in new economic thinking of the present government. A list was drawn ofall the state owned enterprises that were to be restructured. The Post Office as astate owned entity was also in the list.The purpose of this study is to assess the South African Post Office Limited(SAPOL) as a typical state-owned enterprise in the context of the restructuringdebate. It analyses and reviews the achievements and developments that tookplace in the Post Office since commercialisation in 1991 up to the stage wheregovernment decided to restructure the postal industry. It first starts with the issuesthat led to government's decision for restructuring, the options for the restructuringof the Post Office and the selection of acquiring a Strategic Management Partneras the most favourable option. More important, the study explains the approachesthat postal services have taken to improve performance even when they havebeen faced with widely differing legal, institutional, and regulatory environmentsand bottlenecks.This study looks at the international trends and compare SAPOL with other postaladministrations in particular those that have gone through a similar process ofpostal reform. This restructuring process of the Post Office is discussed in detail.The case studies of the two postal administrations namely, New Zealand and theUK, and the steps taken and lessons learnt by these countries in reforming theirenterprises are explored. The purpose of this is to outline several differentapproaches available to the postal service to meet these and related challenges.Lastly, the study looks at the implications of the Strategic Management Partner(SMP) within the enterprise and whether to employ them was a strategic initiativefor the government. It also attempts to solicit important information where aspectsof postal reform seem to succeed and also identify the problem areas.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University