Affirmative action could also be done the American way by giving extra points to previously disadvantaged applicants. Example, black applicant with CPL = white applicant with ATPL, black applicant with turboprop time = white applicant with jet time, black applicant with piston time only = white applicant with turboprop time, black applicant with 200 hours = white applicant with 2000 hours etc:hmm:

Doesn't really matter when the real problem is they just don't have the required number of black applicants, regardless of qualifications/experience. So it seems to me at least.

What you forget is that African 'authorities' have absolutely no qualms about ignoring their own laws when it suits them. They do it all the time!

of course when you have the right and power to make laws, they'd better well suit you. Call it affirmative action, negative discrimination, or fish and chips!

You may just have stumbled upon why African aviation is in such a dismal state re safety. We make the rules to suit ourselves and ignore those we don't like. We then show great surprise when it all turns to buffalo poo and point fingers at everyone while ignoring the 600 lb gorilla in the room. Always easier to blame the past than fix the future.

It's amazing how none of the experts work for SAA.

and, bubble burst here, this is the exact same thing as what happens in every other realm of life in every other nation and continent on the globe...

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....