Shrike200
Point taken. I'm not convinced by the age cap that you place on the issue, but I know what you're getting at.
Fact is: the second world war has been over for about 61 years and Germans are still looked at (generally speaking) as Nazis. Look through this Africa Forum and you will find many references to them in this or a similar light. In the same manner, white South Africans will, for many years to come, be viewed as racists. Just as most Germans were Nazis (or Nazi followers) in the '40's, so most white South Africans were racists until quite recently. A point substantiated by the regime which we kept in power until 1994. My personal feelings in this regards haven't improved at all, nor will they whilst my European tax bill feeds African children so that corrupt African politicians can accumulate personal wealth in otherwise impoverished countries.
As much as I'd like to belong to the "performance oriented" category too, my experience (and perhaps synicism) doesn't allow me to; at least not where Africa is concerned.
I put it to you that, on an individual basis, performance will never ever be the job selection criteria of South Africa, nor has it ever been. The only performance based system that ever worked well there, was that of the performance of a collective few.