In terms of safety, HSE is the fastest growing part of a lot of companies these days. This would appear to be in an effort to comply with increasingly strict regulation in that regard. The problem is that in some of the dodgier bits of Africa it's seen as a stick with which to extort favours by those who have twigged and totally ignored in other places where they haven't, except where corporate culture demands it. In the case of SAA there is a strict compliance required, more due to corporate culture than by govt regulation I should think. It's one of the few companies to do this IMO, and should be lauded for it. I refer here to the safety in Africa thread more than this one when I say that in general rules are conveniently ignored in favour of political and economic expediency, this in reference to DRPAM's comment re making laws that suit a certain group.
The real tragedy is that such laws are seemingly required in the first place to protect a majority from a minority....