SAA was approached by the FAA and the CAA being quietly warned for safety issues this past August, stemming from the A340-200 that came back from heavy maintainence with 41 unresolved issues, one of them being a completey rusted out structural cross beam (essentially could have seriously affected the integrity of the hull and possibly broken up mid flight I imagine with any sever turbulance). They used to have over 19 senior maintenance managers with SATC, but now only 6 are left. Some of them have been replaced with people that have only 2 years experience.
It was a great airline, but because of the affirmative action policy, they have stripped the airline of most of its experienced employees, mostly being white, including the cabin crew in 2000 (I think it was in 2000) where they sacked them all, made them re-apply and only took 500 back out of the 2,500. Don't get me wrong, I do believe there should be equal representation of employees, but I do not believe you throw the baby out with the bathwater i.e. getting rid of experienced crew, replacing them with unqualified people for the sake of affirmative action. Change takes time, and I am sick and tired of the racist card flying up to cover up wrong doing and unsafe practice. The promise in 1994 was to be colourblind, and today in SA it is hardly that. Two wrongs do not make a right. I think people need to start being frank about what is going on there and not being so focused on colour.
In terms of pilots, apparently they were unable to pass pilot training in the UK, so Dr. Ngqula has said the training would take place in SA and they would make sure that they were more successful.
This all does not bode well for SAA. Safety is paramount to an airline's successful operation. Today's news is only one more bad issue for the airline to overcome. If issues like these keep cropping up, I would venture to guess that the Star Alliance will soon be approaching them....