Well having seen first-hand some of the "handling" carried out by SA, I can only concur that it occasionally veers into unsafe practice.
Assuming the aircraft departed without the tape on the ports,Irish Steve did all he could, nobody got hurt, case closed.
Maybe he could have pursued it, but the outcome of that is highly doubtful.
Also, any pressure on his job for highlighting safety concerns is clearly illegal under EU law, and would more likely have resulted in problems for his manager - but then who wants to put the family income on the line, unless lives are directly threatened. Quite understandable.
The real problem here is an obviously unsafe maintenance procedure, but then there is little he could do to affect that.
If he is on a mission against SA - which isn't apparent to me - then fine. He certainly isn't the first here to rail against his (ex) employer, and he has just cause.