I’d never heard of South Africa being a dangerous place until my wife and I met a couple on a work trip dinner this past September. They were both natives/born in SA, but moved to Germany in 2005 or so. We’re prob in their early to mid 50s at the time we spoke. I can’t remember any real specifics, but they were telling legit horror stories about how bad things had gotten in SA even then.
I’m talking barricaded windows, and extra locks/super strong security type doors inside the house, being mugged several times, etc. They definitely didn’t seem like the type to make up stories.
This wasn’t a big news story at the time of the conversation and it was pretty random how it came up.