What about Geordies and Glaswegians? Perhaps the 2 most difficult British accents to understand, unless you come from Newcastle or Glasgow.

The South African accent may be difficult for Brits/Aussies/Americans etc to understand, but it's nothing compared to the Geordie accent or a thick Glaswegian accent.

Yet Geordies and Glaswegians can happily tick the 'native speaker' box!

Foxy, that's the way the cookie crumbles. Like it or not, the Chinese immigration bureau have set the regulations to try and filter out FTs with non-standard English pronunciation and little understanding of western culture and customs.

However, I think that FTs with bad accents will be found out and forced to leave within a few weeks of taking up their new teaching posts in China. If I had a thick accent, I wouldn't want to be an FT in any country!