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No country for white men: SAA’s “racist” snub of prospective pilots

Outrage as South African Airways announces 40 new cadets for its pilot training programme – and not one of them is a white male…

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The trade union Solidarity has resumed it public campaign against South African Airways after the airline’s final selection of 40 candidates for its Cadet Pilot Development Programme included no white males.

The 40 aspiring pilots include ten black men, four black women, nine coloured men, one coloured woman, seven Indian men, two Indian women and seven white women – all of them falling under the category of previously disadvantaged individuals as defined in the Employment Equity Act, according to a statement made by SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali.

“The cadet programme is the airline’s effort to transform not only its own but also the country’s flight deck community, which is nowhere close to reflecting the country’s race and gender demographics. It is evident that SAA and other local aviation operators need to take steps that will redress the demographically skewed work force and ensure the advancement of the previously disadvantaged,” Tlali said.

SAA’s transformation strategy is informed by the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Aviation Sector Charter and in the case of this particular programme, when assessing all applications, SAA is obliged to give preference to previously disadvantaged groups.

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The airline came under fire last year when it put a ban on applications from white males which was ultimately lifted in August after Solidarity launched a major public protest in response. However, according the Dirk Hermann, the deputy general secretary of the trade union, “It is clear  that the lifting of the ban was merely a smokescreen for continued racial discrimination by the airline” in light of the recent announcement.

“SAA’s exclusion of white male candidates constitutes subsidised racism… the taxpayer is forced to pay for the government’s obsession to apply national racial demographics at all levels everywhere in South Africa”, Hermann said. Solidarity has called on all white men who applied for the cadet programme but were unsuccessful to contact it so that it can investigate legal action on their behalf.

Hermann also called on the South African public to support their campaign, adding that “We demand that the applications of all white men should be reviewed according to the same merits as other applicants, since quote systems so blatantly applied by the SAA is illegal in South Africa”.

The state-owned carrier was on the brink of financial collapse until very recently – and with a potential boycott on the cards spearheaded by Solidarity, it looks like even more turbulence ahead… fasten your seat belts.

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