SAA management refused to accept SAAPA's proposal to reduce entry level salaries as they felt that this would not allow them to attract the best pilot candidates. They obviously realise how undesirable it is to work for SAA these days!
So new hires will still start at SAA at over R500k a year, but at least this time they will go direct entry as a P2 and this will eliminate all those who have hogged pilot positions at SAA as P3's when they could not fly and were only eliminated 3 or 4 years later when their P2 conversion finally caught them out.