As one of the leading flight schools in South Africa, we would like to state that the majority of established flight schools in South Africa are honest and highly reputable establishments. There are flight schools who are not in compliance with SACAA regulations and others that have shady financial dealings, but judging by the many threads on this forum, it seems that no country is without dodgy operators.
Our academy was the second flight school that the one Nigerian pilot attended, and after he refused to fly his short solo nav and then went to another flight school, flew the nav with an instructor, and then filled in his log book as having flown solo, we immediately dismissed him from our academy and submitted a report to our civil aviation authority advising them of the dismissal and the reasons.
We run our academy to international standards and so do many of the larger schools in South Africa. Any pilot who has attended a reputable South African flight school or academy will attest to the very high standard of flight training offered in South Africa.
Feel free to PM me with any query if you plan on attending a South African school and are second guessing their reputation.