"Most new higher-end developments are fenced-off security complexes"

Thank you for taking time to write such a detailed answer.

The security complex thing, I wouldn't be able to live like that. It is my natural instinct to roam cities on foot, walk through the streets and the parks, observe people and birds etc., regardless whether it is my own city or a city that I visited as a tourist. But it seems this is precisely the one thing you can't do in SA safely.

Living behind a high wall, I would feel like an expensive prisoner. But maybe I wouldn't miss the freedom to roam, if I never experienced it in my life.