My Visit to South Africa
We entered South Africa through Johannesburg International airport in late September 2006. As the Ethiopian Airlines flight was making the descent to land, I looked through the window and my first impressions of South Africa was that of a flat land that wore the face of aridity.
After landing and going through immigration formalities, our hosts took us to a waiting car and we headed for the house. The left hand drive rule in force in South Africa appears pretty awkward for any visitor from Cameroon where we drive on the right.

As we drove to the house from the airport, I took note of the nice roads, the aesthetic surroundings, and hundreds of low and middle-income houses some constructed by the ANC government to try and ease the pressure of housing.

It was not to be long before I started seeing the practical symbols of the insecurity of Johannesburg. This city of more than 3 million has a reputation as one of the most violent cities in the world. A typical residence in a rich Johannesburg neighborhood is usually enclosed behind high walls. Wiring connected to electricity may be added at the top of the walls. In addition, surveillance cameras monitor the premises round the clock and some compounds contract armed security companies to intervene in cases of any emergency.
In the rich Bryanston neighborhood of Johannesburg where we stayed, the majority of the residents are white, as I confirmed during a church service in the area where more than 80 percent of worshippers were white.

When we got to the central park in downtown Johannesburg, almost everybody around was black. In today's South Africa, statutory segregation has ended but practical social segregation is still a fact of life. It seems it will be many years down the road for integration to become a reality. About 4.4 million (9.2 percent) of South Africa's 47.4 million people are whites while blacks constitute 79.5% percent of the population. Asians and mixed races make up the rest.