It may seem unusual to bring new pilots into an airline without a simulator "ride" as the Americans have it, but it is not new. Back in the 1990s in CX, Human Resources as it then was wanted to take the simulator out of recruitment completely as they were convinced their psychometric testing and general interview were sufficient. In the end FLT OPS managed to keep it in, but the weighting was reduced to 10% of the scoring. We did start training a few Lulus at that time, including a couple of simulator instructors with Parker 51 hours from another well respected airline but we caught them in the slips after a couple of overs.
Which comes to the point now. It is probably cheaper to bring new entrant pilots into Hong Kong and weed them out here in the first few weeks than go to the expense of sending an interview team to JNB/CPT and sim-check them there. Then you have to quarantine the interview team on return. More $$$, even if you can get rooms for them.
Personally I would be very happy to sit alongside an ex Comair pilot and leave him in the seat while I go for crew rest. It was pretty competitive to get a job with Comair anyway, and they will have done multiple sectors RHS (or even LHS) on B737s which is a good basis for further training. I'll stick my neck out and add that the Saffers as a bunch are perhaps more stoic than other nationalities right now, and will do the hard yards for professional development.
disclaimer:- Not a Saffer