I've been very lucky with jobs post-training. Currently a First Officer on the A380. Having said that, of my batch of about 8 people during training (all Europeans), there were only 2 or 3 of us who got a flying job relatively quickly. A couple more have managed to find flying jobs after a few years of looking/trying to keep their licence current. The rest have unfortunately not found anything at all, and have had to go back to previous jobs to support their families and pay back the training loans. Most of the South Africans I trained with are working either as instructors or as bush/charter pilots. Great fun for them, but in terms of salary etc, pretty poor.
I did my course through a UK company, who basically organised all the admin of the training in SA and UK. I think the total cost for training and accommodation was £65-£70k. On top of that, you need living money. At the time, we were getting 12 Rand to the Pound. Its now about 21, so I would expect it to be a bit cheaper. Also, if you organise it yourself, you should be able to make significant savings. I recommend you get familiar with the licence requirements of the South African PPL, and also the UK (f)ATPL. -
https://www.caa.co.uk/Commercial-ind...icence-(ATPL)/
That'll include the minimum requirements for what you need. You need to take into account that flying training will probably take longer than you anticipate. There are a whole raft of things that can slow you down - bad weather, lack of instructors, aircraft in maintenance, lack of aircraft etc etc. Also, it's not uncommon for people to fail the odd exam here and there, or need to repeat training sessions or flying tests.
Please feel free to ask anything else you're wondering about, and i'll try to help!