One of those users was South African Airways (SAA) which was founded on 1st February 1934 when the South African Government acquired Union Airways together with a small fleet of passenger aircraft, among them four Junkers F.13 (one of them leased) and a single Junkers A.50. In order to modernise the fleet, SAA ordered three Ju.52/3m which entered service in October 1934 and entered service in just 10 days.
These aircraft could carry up to 14 passengers with a crew of four and covered the route Durban-Johannesburg three times a week with weekly services on the Durban-East London-Port Elizabeth-George Mossel Bay-Cape Town route. From July 1935 another weekly Rand-Kimberley-Beaufort West-Cape Town route was set up and, in April 1936 every Rand-Cape Town service was taken over from Imperial Airways, all these routes were being covered by the Ju.52/3m for which, an additional fourth one was added to the fleet.
As the company was swiftly expanding, another ten Ju.52/3m were ordered raising the total number of SAA Ju.52/3m to fourteen, though three of the older models were sold when the newest models were bought. The airline enjoyed a rapid expansion, though in July 1937 the company suffered its first accident when one of the new Ju.52/3m crashed after taking off from Rand with one reported fatality.
The company kept on growing, however at the start of the World War 2, its operations were paralysed and the ten Ju.52/3m were pressed into the South African Air Force (SAAF).
Serving with the SAAF the Ju.52/3m was used mainly by the No.50 Squadron SAAF during the whole duration of the war operating mainly as shuttle services from Nairobi, in Kenya to Egypt, Middle East and back to South Africa. When serving in this role, some of them were re-engined with American Pratt & Whitney R-1535 Twin Wasp engines placed straight instead of being splayed outwards. Some sources claim that they were also used as makeshift bombers during the East African Campaign.
In 1944 South African Airways restarted domestic air routes and the Ju.52/3m were put in storage until the late 1940s when they were mostly sold or retired when the company bought 28 Lockheed Lodestars.
One of them, a Spanish-built CASA 352L was bought in 1984 from England to celebrate the 50th anniversary of SAA and it's nowadays one of the few airworthy Ju.52 remaining.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Airways
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_Ju_52
3. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234969613-junkers-ju-86-z7-saaf-revell-conv/page/2/
4. http://www.saairforce.co.za/the-airforce/aircraft/174/ju-523m
5. https://ju52archiv.de/Ju52.pdf
6. https://de.zxc.wiki/wiki/Junkers_Ju_52/3m
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Squadron_SAAF
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airworthy_Ju_52s.
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