Trade union Solidarity is shocked that the South African Airways (SAA) cadet programme did not select a single white male for its cadet programme. On Monday SAA announced that the company had enlisted 40 cadets into the programme. The group of 40 selected cadets can be broken down into these demographics; 10 black men, four black women, nine colured men, one coloured woman, seven Indian men, two Indian women and seven white women.

Deputy general secretary Dirk Hermann said:

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.

In August last year, the SAA lifted the ban on applications from white males for its cadet programme after Solidarity launched a major public protest campaign against the SAA.

It is clear that the lifting of the ban was merely a smoke-screen for continued racial discrimination by the airline.

Those white men who were unsuccessful in selection for the programme were contacted by the union in an attempt to investigate taking legal action on their behalf. But according to SAA, those cadets that were chosen fall under the the category of previously disadvantaged individuals as set out in the Employment Equity Act. SAA spokesman Tlali Tlali said:

It is important to note this in the context of the current reality and measures that need to be taken.

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 demographics.

In the case of this particular programme, when assessing all applications, SAA is obliged to give preference to previously disadvantaged groups.

[Source: iAfrica]