tilii - Air France has as good as - if not a better - African network as SN did; especially to Francophone countries.
Having run a regional operation in Central Africa operating out of BJM to such fun places as KGL, EBB, GOM, BUX, BEN and TQX the problem is always going to be how many pax you can get on these services. Our pax were primarily NGO employees and diplomats - and the load factors in our Let 410s averaged around 70% which wasn't too bad.
Air Burundi was our state owned competitor, and through corruption and general inefficiency they managed to operate their sole B1900 probably 50% of the time at best. The Air Burundi pilots were very badly paid at around US$200 per month; most flew for us on the side!
Elsewhere in Africa, you have Air Afrique which has long been a bigger basket case than SN and has recently been rescued (yet again) by the long suffering French taxpayer who also pays for the very extensive French military presence in most of the Francophone nations - keeping despotic governments in power.
Air Gabon recently acquired a B747-400 which seems a tad excessive for a country where the average salary is under $500 per month - but which thanks to a sea of oil controlled by ElfTotalFina is one of the richer nations in that benighted continent. Regrettably, the majority of that income appears to find its way into the accounts of President Omar Bongo and his family rather than benefitting the populace.
Then you have that other paragon of virtue and efficiency, Nigeria Airways. If you think that carriers like Ansett and SN were overstaffed, try this for size: in the early 1990s, WT had a couple of 737s flyable plus (I think) an A310. Total staffing for those three aircraft was over 15,000. (
Boss Raptor can correct this if necessary - he's considerably more conversant with them than I)
Whilst there may well be a case for state enterprise in developing nations - and there is - I do not think that this should apply in developed ones.