I must admit that I can't believe that you can't believe SAA will only have SAA pilots.
Fair enough a Direct entry Captain scheme may allow expats but for low hour cadets, I think every country is suprlus to requirements.
In most countries apart form the EU which might as well be a country now
, you have to be a resident to work in that country. I'd love to be able to walk over to Singapore Airlines and say, yeah give me a place on your cadet scheme above all other Singapore Nationals. But it just won't happen.
Maybe you should have got dual citinzenship whilst living there. Then you may have been elegible.