That doesn't surprise me one bit...
That doesn't surprise me one bit.... the guys from SA have it just as hard as anybody on the block with low time so it is understandable that an old boy's club has started up.... I experienced this once before in east Africa: we comprised of 1 Aussie, 1 Canadian, 1 American, 1 South African, 1 New Zealander and 1 Kenyan... we were all Captains and had locals riding shotgun in the right seat.... when the Aussie decided it was time to pack and go home, the bloke from SA offered to get a mate up from the Cape which was okay... everybody really got along and the bloke from SA was a wonder at the BBQ! the problems started when the new guy from SA showed up.... and then the Chief Pilot (CP) who was a white Ugandan started to get a lot of pressure from the two blokes from SA... they wanted to get their buddies in.. even if they didn't meet the hours requirements etc etc.... and then we started to feel the pressure when a group of them showed up to camp out with us all and scope the operation out... I mean nice guys and all, but you could see the desperation to get in and you could feel it too! The CP then brought the hammer down and cleaned house... the last bloke from SA had until the end of the month to clear out. The CP later told me that when he grew up on the family farm... his father used to have hired help in the house and on the land... and not one single worker came from the same tribe as another because he had made the experience that they begin to form bonds outside of the total unit and this has the tendancy to cause disruptions to the whole operations... including rebelious behaviour.... so he would keep the staus quo and have only one driver from each country... that way he kept things tidy and tight... and the pilot group tended to remain a close group... we could always recommend a mate to replace us when we left, but not to work at the same time... and he was damn right about the need to keep our minds concentrated on the job and not on wondering if we would have to pull knives out of our backs...
I am still in touch with the first guy from SA.... he is now a 777 Captain at EK and a very nice guy...and I do miss the other guy's BBQ's skills though! All in all, we all had a great time together, and the building of an old boy's club could happen with any group... it is just a natural tendancy of human behaviour! Give these new guys a chance, if they survive a year in the bush, then they are worthy of your charter!
fly safe
6to8