Bergie,
The justifiable point about "Being critical of the pilots salaries at SAA" is: Where do they get paid from?
If those salaries were paid from the revenues of a profitable airline, then the pilots have something rightly to be 'proud' of. (Although, being 'proud' is sadly a much overused 'Saffer' term!)
If those salaries can only be paid through being propped up by the taxpayer, then pilots at SAA (like you?) should just shut up and keep their heads down as there is nothing to be 'proud' of. Just think, those pilots in 1Time were paying taxes that went towards supporting SAA pilots' salaries. The same with the various taxes paid (though their various purchases) by the cleaner in the (commercially viable) supermarket, that in their own small way also contribute towards supporting SAA pilots' salaries. Is that something to be 'proud' of? No, that is something that justifies the term "Losers" to be thrown back at you.
And as for 'benchmarks' for salaries? The only true benchmark is 'What is needed to pay the pilots in order to retain them so that the airline can stay in profit?' You appear to be ex-SAAF (nothing fundamentally wrong with that though!) where you haven't got away from the idea that spending money is what the job is all about and you haven't got it into your head that making money is what the job should be about.
The 'Losers' are those who are working in a commercial world but have to have their salaries propped up by the taxpayer because their airline is a commercial 'loser'. But the true 'Losers' are the taxpayers that are tolerating this!!