What is about to happen in SAA, is exactly what occured in the SAAF in the early '90's.
Then, the SAAF HQ were out of touch with the turn in the aviation market and during the restructuring (or rather 'destructuring') handed out packages to pilots. Within a year they were losing pilots hand over fist, and had a severe shortage of pilots. (The expertise they had, they will never replace)
I think, with what is happening in SAA today and managements restructuring proposals, it's going to create the same vacuum. I agree totally with TooBadSoSad regarding the state of the airline and with the upswing in the worlds airline industry, there is going to be alot of pilot resignations over the near to middle term.
Some might say, thats great, it will create more opportunities for people who wish to stay here. However, only once you are in SAA, you may realise that all is not what it is made out to be, or was. And you may start wondering wether SAA is the airline career you are looking for or merely just another stepping stone. Which in that case, you would rather have gone to Comair,Nationwide, etc, got a far quicker command instead of sitting 3 years as a P3 and made yourself more marketable internationally!
Unfortunately as long as SAA remains a government run airline, making political decisions and not business decisions, a long term career at SAA looks rather bleek.