Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-95).

Nationalisation involves putting any section of the economy under the control and ownership of a government. Nationalisation is not new to South Africa. The governments of the past and especially the Nationalist Party have nationalised a number of industries in the South African economy. Today almost 54% of the productive assets in the country are in the hands of the government. Transport, electricity, post office, are a few examples. Nationalisation in the past has been used to benefit only the whites, by providing them with jobs and services.

The importance of State-owned entities (SOEs) in a developing State has been argued for centuries. SOEs are perceived as the tool that the State can successfully use to implement its developmental agenda. In the Republic of South Africa, SOEs have been used to ensure universal access to electricity, water and logistical infrastructure to support industrial development, as well as basic service delivery. These entities have been expected to fund these initiatives from their own funds, which alleviated the need for commercial SOEs (also known as State-owned companies) to be profitable without continuous financial injections from the RSA government. Generally, commercial SOEs have been performing poorly financially. This research study aims to determine whether political influence might affect the profitability of these commercial SOEs. The poor financial performance plaguing the commercial SOEs hinders their ability to effectively contribute as a collective to the developmental agenda of the State, as espoused in the current strategic plan of the RSA in the form of the National Development Plan (NDP). Due to the poor financial performance and subsequent diversion of financial resources from other national priorities for their bail-out, commercial SOEs have been considered a liability rather than an asset to the RSA. To satisfy the primary and associated research objectives, qualitative primary and secondary research data have been collected. The primary data have been collected by using the semi-structured interview from the CFOs of commercial SOEs from various government departments – given their proximity to the financial performance and the drivers of this performance in commercial SOEs. CFOs are also part of the commercial SOEs senior-executive management of these entities. The general opinion of the participants and the literature review of the research study is that, indeed, political influence has had an adverse effect on the profitability of commercial SOEs, among others, as a consequence of the positioning of SOEs within the governance system of the RSA, the impact of the recruitment process for senior executives and the implications of an unfunded mandate. It is clear that in the RSA, commercial SOEs, and SOEs in general, will continue to play a pivotal role in the implementation of the developmental agendas of the State, as expressed in the NDP. With the RSA government expecting commercial SOEs to fund these activities from their own funds, it is critical that the State should be an enabler rather than a hindrance for commercial SOEs‟ profitability.

LL.M. / This is the exploration of the topic of nationalisation of the country’s mines and mineral wealth. The discussion studies the impact of the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act 28 of 2002 (hereafter referred to as the MPRDA) and other relevant legislation on the nationalisation discussion. Ultimately the discussion examines whether nationalisation finds any support within the South African Constitution or not. The discussion begins with a study of the history of mining and minerals rights; an exploration is then undertaken on the meaning of property and whether mineral rights can be understood to mean property. The discussion then progresses to the study of the relevant provisions of section 25 of the South African Constitution in an effort to determine whether nationalisation is justifiable in terms of the South African Constitution. What is largely considered in this case are the recent findings of the Agri South Africa v Minister for Minerals and Energy 2013 4 SA 1 CC case as well as other relevant and emerging case law on the subject matter.

This thesis examines the effect government ownership has on the relationship between fair value accounting and earnings quality when “mark-to-model” techniques are used in fair value estimations. To this end we compare 36 real estate companies controlled by private interests with 32 real estate companies controlled by the state and municipal governments in Sweden. We find that the relationship between fair value accounting exposure and aggregated earnings quality is negatively affected by government ownership when unobservable inputs are used in the fair value estimation. Previous research treats government ownership simply as having a first order relationship with earnings quality. Our results indicate determinants of earnings quality can affect one another, and that these effects should be considered.

No description available.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Comparative Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1985. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [451]-489).