After following this post, I'll give my 2 cents worth. SAA, like SAX, Eskom, Telkom, etc, is a parastatal, which means it's an employment generating machine for the government, so any privitisation is not going to happen soon, besides Airbus pays handsome "bribes" to the officials who are responsible for fleet acquisitions. A good book to read is Jetlag, by Dennis Beckett to get a good perspective on SAA's history post 1994.
Pilots running an Airline.... I didn't learn how to fly because I wanted to sit behind a desk... There are people who are well qualified to run an Airline out there, our government just has to put a stop to nepotism and enriching themselves and their friends and things would get better. I guess that's like asking for the crime rate in SA to drop by 90%.
I don't work for SAA, there are days where I think about applying to SAA, but sitting for 13 years in the right hand seat to get command on an A319 makes me think twice.
I have a lot of friends at SAA and I don't think their egos are any bigger than most pilots out there, me included. Is the ego not part of the passion we have for what we do? Yes there are extremes, as someone once said to me "We are all nice people, some just hide it better than others". As for calling the Pilot in Command Captain, I can see the logic behind it, especially when working with some Cabin Crew who need to reminded there is an authority gradient that has to be adhered to. The salaries they earn are huge, I wouldn't say no to it, it's a testament to SAAPA and lets convert their salary into US Dollars and compare it to other International Airlines, are they that far off Industry Standard?
Whether you fly a C150 for R180 an hour or a 747-400 for R100 000 a month it beats working for a living.