Dreaming of conquering the skies as an SAA pilot? Well, it’s time to get your head out of clouds if you’re a white male because SAA are no longer accepting any more cadet pilot training applications from that particular demographic.

Local newspaper, Die Beeld, questioned SAA after it discovered that white men’s online applications for the cadet training programme were “summarily rejected” when they entered their race. In response, SAA spokesperson Kabelo Ledwaba, said that the training programme was introduced to bring in candidates from a wider demographic group that more accurately reflected the country’s demographics.

The airline will appoint white, male pilots when there are vacant posts for which no other candidates from other races can be found.

Only 15% of SAA’s pilots are currently black, and this includes Indians and coloureds. The rest are white, and 91% of them are men.

Beeld put the system to the test and found that, after several dummy applications, the programme had been designed to automatically reject any white candidates.

An upset father had contacted Beeld to complain after his son, who is fit, has completed matric and meets all the other requirements, was rejected purely on grounds of his race.

[Source: Fin24, Die Beeld]