If this is true it's going to cause some friction in the industry! How can an airline that is the national carrier of a country even consider employing foreign pilots if there is an abundant supply of eager and experienced pilots in the country who would do just about anything to fly for them?!?
And as far as I know if you are registered as a "Proudly South Africa" company operating in South Africa... as I'm sure SAA is... you're supposed to support South African development and local standards. How are you doing this if you employ foreigners.
Before they do this they just better do their research carefully because I'm sure ALPA, amongst others, will have something to say about this...