On morality and circumstance

Is a moral man in an immoral system, that is a man who breaks with the immorality of the system yet still works within its confines, a moral man independent of the system or is he merely moral when contrasted to the system? Phrased differently - is personal morality dependent on circumstance or is morality independent of circumstance? This is a difficult question, and one for which I have no good answer, but the question is nonetheless worth investigating.
Take for instance the jailor who befriended Nelson Mandela. (If we indeed are to believe his version of events. For the purpose of argument, let’s accept it.) In his story he is portrayed as a moral person because he deviates from the norm. He is a firm believer in Apartheid, and works for the inner echelons of the security system, yet he doesn’t exhort to extraordinary violence – he stays within the confines of what is “permitted”. All his colleagues use that extra energy that is “required”. What does this tell us about him? Not that he is moral, nor that he is non-violent, in fact all it tells us is that he is obedient and has a firm belief that the racist system can function without the use of excessive violence. He is in fact just following the law that is made by an immoral system. The fact that he is not excessively immoral does not make him moral, only apparently so as he is, by degree, more moral than his fellow immoralists. Furthermore, as he loses faith in the system and sees the wrongs that are committed he hopes that it will end, yet he remains a jailor. Still, for reasons that are not clear, we perceive him as the good guy. Why? Is it perhaps that he doubts? Is it that he wills the system to end? But as they say – action speaks louder than words – and by this standard this jailor is so silent you can hear a pin drop. If he was so feverishly against the system could he really defend the fact that he was working for the very system that had held Nelson Mandela in prison for 20+ years? “I want to witness history unfolding,” he says (perhaps not in those exact words), and this is supposed to make us feel sympathy – and in a sense we do. But has this anything to do with morality? If he really wanted to make a change, based on moral grounds, he would leave his job in protest. He doesn’t – he risks nothing – he stays. Yes, he befriends Mandela. Yes, he is not as bad as the other jailors. Yes, he hopes Apartheid will end. But does this make him good or is this only a fata morgana produced by the circumstance of Apartheid?