My 2 cents.
For quite a few jobs here, it is common to see 6 months to 12 months anti competitive clauses. Asking to remove it won't work, as most HR (except you of course :p) have no clue how to even interpret the contract's anti compete terms. And that includes managerial posts in FnB trade - where it makes no sense- like, say an bar manager leaves, what else is he supposed to do if he is barred from working for competitors.
The issue is enforcement -almost all cases where there cases were taken to court by the ex-employers ended up in dismissal. From my end that's what I have seen. Though SMS may have seen the opposite (though some known guys ended up being unemployable due to the cases - that's a different topic anyway).
What gets the wins is when the employer can prove poaching of key clients. So when you leave, if you take your clients, then adding the anti competitive clause + client poaching = employer just added his odds of winning. And of course, if the employee jumps to work for a client or principal without prior approval from the current employers.
And again, in a lot of cases, employers have in fact added the exclusion of the anti compete clause, upon termination/resignation, upon request or otherwise, as larger companies know it is unfair to deprive somebody of his / her rice bowl by saying they can't work for competitors, especially if the industry is too small.
And almost all the retrenchment letters I have seen have the words saying the anti-competitive clauses are being waived.
And for candidates who went to clients or principals, again, I never saw any employer saying no. In fact, blessings were more than forthcoming. ! More like, good riddance