Before the last in-house drive there WAS and attempt to certify SAPA. However, it wasn't sponsored by SAPA officers. Once it started to get some traction, the president of SAPA at the time C. Abell wrote a letter to the NMB claiming the drive was illegitimate. The argument went something like this: "since the officers of SAPA do not constitute the organizing commitee (and essentially are not on board) someone else should not be allowed to use our name and certify us." The NMB made the organizing committee start over and use a different name. They did start over and chose UPA, and it failed miserably.
The whole debacle just proved once again that the SAPA leadership is more interested in their relationship with management than their relationship with the pilots.