I was looking a school for my son 6 years ago and I considered all options including doing what you are envisaging to do, i.e. doing the CPL with MEIR (up to CPL only since it would have been a waste doing the ATPL having to resit all 14 EASA exams) in SA then converting. I was looking at 43 Air School. By the time you add the CPL conversion, MEIR conversion, ATPL exams, MCC/JOC, it would have costed a couple of thousand euros less, and I considered that it wasn't worth the hassle.
I opted for AFTA in Cork and I didn't regret since he had top-notch training there, and he got a job in 2015 just after finishing his training.
You can have a look at some other schools - Bartolini in Poland, Aeropyrénées in France, and there must be some in UK which are good too. But the likes of L3, CAE and FTE Jerez are way too expensive and you will get the same level of training with the "smaller" ones.