I personally don't agree with the policy but it is what it is.

The Boers and Afrikaners plan to boycott the airline. Check out the comments.

http://www.fin24.com/Companies/TravelAndLeisure/No-more-white-cadet-pilots-for-SAA-20120817


Johannesburg - Cadet pilot training course applications from white men are no longer being accepted by South African Airways (SAA), it was reported on Friday.

Fantastic news. And about time. The reason whites are in the majority of pilots (just as they are in the majority of all high paying jobs) is that the apartheid regime stole the common wealth belonging to the nation and reserved it for the white minority in education and other benefits. Kudos to the ANC govt for reversing the ugly legacy of apartheid discrimination, and giving the blacks a chance to benefit from their country's wealth. The whites complaining on that site can do the honourable thing if they find they cannot handle these changes, ie return to wherever the hell they came from.

Rossikk: Fantastic news. And about time. The reason whites are in the majority of pilots (just as they are in the majority of all high paying jobs) is that the apartheid regime stole the common wealth belonging to the nation and reserved it for the white minority in education and other benefits. Kudos to the ANC govt for reversing the ugly legacy of apartheid discrimination, and giving the blacks a chance to benefit from their country's wealth. The whites complaining on that site can do the honourable thing if they find they cannot handle these changes, ie return to wherever the hell they came from.

My thoughts exactly!!! Of course the whites are going to complain and spew nonsense about how blacks are not qualified and only whites can do the job. If they don't like it, LEAVE!

I genuinely think this is a bad idea. Whoever was heading the airline when this decision was made doesn't have much going on upstairs. If the country is majority black, the pilots will be majority black eventually with enough time. Why they think it has to be that way immediately, only 2 decades after apartheid ended, and why they're using racially based policies to achieve that goal in a country with a history of past racial exclusion policies is really puzzling (unless they don't care about embarrassing themselves).

Actually, after a quick search, I found that they've reversed the policy:

http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71654?oid=320113&sn=Detail&pid=71616

http://www.fin24.com/Companies/TravelAndLeisure/SAA-lifts-ban-on-white-cadets-20120819-2

What a shame, South Africa will always be in the hands of the minority whites

Why did they reverse it nah,when the whites were in power,did they show mercy,why must blacks apply mercy and sentiments when dealing with whites,why can't we learn from the past? Am sure that it is attitudes like this that our ancestors exhibited that made us to lose north africa and europe.

pazienza: Why did they reverse it nah,when the whites were in power,did they show mercy,why must blacks apply mercy and sentiments when dealing with whites,why can't we learn from the past? Am sure that it is attitudes like this that our ancestors exhibited that made us to lose north africa and europe.

We are too forgiving

FufuKing:

We are too forgiving

This is why i love mugagbe,the whites were heartless and barbaric in taking lands that doesn't belong to them,mugagbe was equally ruthless in taking it away from them. The whites show no mercy in taking things from people,but when it is time for the people to take it back for them,they start playing the victim.

it sould be based on merit and not the colour of your skin

PhysicsQED: I genuinely think this is a bad idea. Whoever was heading the airline when this decision was made doesn't have much going on upstairs. If the country is majority black, the pilots will be majority black eventually with enough time.

Enough time, as in 100 years time? Or 200 years??

Thank goodness folks like you did not lead the apartheid resistance. You would have folded your arms and asked everyone to ''wait for enough time'' for the whites to alter their racist mindsets.

Why they think it has to be that way immediately, only 2 decades after apartheid ended, and why they're using racially based policies to achieve that goal in a country with a history of past racial exclusion policies is really puzzling (unless they don't care about embarrassing themselves).

It's called Affirmative Action. Correcting historical wrongs. You can only drive out a nail with another nail. The USA has been doing pretty well with the Affrimative Action policy. In fact YOU sound like a beneficiary of it. Oh, and as for 'embarassing themselves', once again, unlike you, real Africans DO NOT GIVE A DAMN what westerners 'think'. What concerns us is uplifting our people, no matter whose ox is gored. Deal with that fact and you'll suffer less angst.

^^^

Dude, leave the childish personal insults out of this.

I did not condemn the broader affirmative action policies in SA - they have several affirmative action policies, after all. I disagreed with this one for an obvious reason. Any way you look at it, it's embarrassing and not sensible to erect racial exclusion policies in a country where doing that in the past was such a problem and a source of international shame and condemnation. Employing racial quotas to correct past injustices is not the same as simply stopping a race outright from pursuing a profession with the country's official airline in a country.

PhysicsQED: ^^^

Dude, leave the childish personal insults out of this.

I did not condemn the broader affirmative action policies in SA - they have several besides this, after all. I disagreed with this one for an obvious reason. Any way you look at it, it's embarrassing and not sensible to erect racial exclusion policies in a country where doing that in the past was such a problem.

You're missing the point. Your pre-occupation with being nice to the whites is blinding you to the far more important reversal of injustice being executed by the govt.

Employing racial quotas to correct past injustices is not the same as simply banning a race outright from pursuing a profession in a country.

It's virtually the same thing. One is a bit sharper edged than the other, and with good reason. The apartheid system was far worse than what occurred in civil rights era USA, hence you cannot expect the same level of treatment for the whites in SA as obtains in the US. I think the ANC govt should be commended for their honesty. Rather than concocting some politically safe 'quota system', they simply came out and said, 'look, we cannot have this situation whereby 99% of our pilots are whites even though they constitute under 5% of our population''. In fact when you look at it, it's actually a national security issue. What happens if this group decides to side with foreign elements in some conflict situation? That would leave the country highly vulnerable.

What does "being nice to the whites" have to do with this? It's frustrating discussing stuff with you sometimes because you see motives that don't exist. If it were up to me, there wouldn't have been whites in SA or at the very least, there wouldn't be so many of those neo-nazi like Boers there. I don't have much sympathy for those guys and I challenge you to find one positive comment I've made on them.

And I disagree with the idea that a racial quota is the same thing as employing a racial exclusion policy. If we don't agree on that, then there's not really much more to discuss.

PhysicsQED: What does "being nice to the whites" have to do with this?

It has everything to do with it. By right the whites should have everything they own stripped of them. THEY STOLE THE WEALTH OF THE COUNTRY, KILLING MILLIONS OF AFRICANS IN THE PROCESS. FACT. AND THEY STILL RETAIN THAT STOLEN WEALTH. FACT.

Don't come in here showing greater sympathy and consideration for the descendants of the thieves and looters than their victims. Was Mandela's capitulation not enough? How much more indignity do you sit there expecting Africans to endure on their own soil, by asking them to wait another 50 to 100 years before they can control their own resources and pilot their own planes?

Sorry, if it means placing a temporary BAN on white applicants, SO BE IT. The whites should never have caused the problem in the first place by stealing the national wealth for themselves to the exclusion of the black majority.

Where is this 100 years crap coming from?

How could it possibly take 100 years to have mostly black pilots?

Why are you under the impression that it would take that long?

And the fact that you claim that there was "sympathy" in my comments toward the whites, even when anyone can see that my comment is not about the "injustice" or "justice" of the action, but about it being not necessary to effect the change in demographics in that field so soon and about the international embarrassment they risked, is annoying. Where in my comment are you seeing this "justice" and "sympathy" crap? Stop this ridiculous way of arguing where you just make up stuff because it's becoming a nuisance.

Where is this 100 years crap coming from?

How could it possibly take 100 years to have mostly black pilots?

But it's been 20 years since apartheid, the ratio is still heavily skewed in favour of whites, and you're still saying the blacks should wait some more years. So you must be talking of maybe another 100 years. Or is it 50? See, if the govt just allows things to 'naturally' evolve the way you suggest, you will find that NOTHING will change even in the next 100 years. The whites would keep owning the wealth and transferring same to their offspring. There are no real mechanisms in the capitalist system to produce this supposedly inevitable democratisation of wealth you seem to be fantasizing about. Direct govt action is required to effect real change.

Rossikk:

But it's been 20 years since apartheid, the ratio is still heavily skewed in favour of whites, and you're still saying the blacks should wait some more years. So you must be talking of maybe another 100 years. Or is it 50? See, if the govt just allows things to 'naturally' evolve the way you suggest, you will find that NOTHING will change even in the next 100 years. The whites would keep owning the wealth and transferring same to their offspring. There are no real mechanisms in the capitalist system that ensure this supposedly inevitable democratisation of wealth you seem to be fantasising about. Direct govt action is required to effect real change.

And that's why the affirmative action policies that are already in place make sense. But with those policies in effect, gradually blacks there will be able to compete on a more level playing field and the demographics will undergo a complete reversal. I don't think that will take 100 years or even 50. Just looking at SA's demographics, I don't see how whites could continue to dominate the pilot profession when the country is 80% black when quotas could be put in place (rather than race based exclusion) and while the playing field is gradually made more equal.