Best friend moved to South Africa about 5 years ago. Went back with a White SA girl he met in the UK. They live in Jo'berg. We come from a rough town anyway so Jo'Berg is no big deal for us. It's worth noting that South Africa is divided, Socially (Not Legally), Between educated Blacks, Whites and Uneducated Blacks. (there Terminology. No down voting me for not using People of colour of that crap)
We where visiting the coast (St-Lucia) for new years. Me, My girl, My buddy and his Girlfriend. All night NYE people made jokes about us not being able to go to the beach on New years Day. We assumed it was because we would all be hungover.
On New Years Day me and my girlfriend loaded up my buddies truck to head to the beach about 4 miles away while my buddy and his girlfriend slept. We tried to drive to the beach without realising over 100,000 Black people from the cities had taken taxies out to St-Lucia to party all day on the beach. We knew it happened in Durban but had no idea it had got this far up. The hotel staff where all on Edge. A guard at another hotel had been shot in the head that morning and killed.
The beaches are divided between Black and Black/White beaches. It's not a government thing ,It's not a race thing. It's a class divide between the Educated and Less educated, White Upper class blacks and Majority Whites on one beach, Lower class blacks on the other (Rare to find Lower class whites in SA as white only make 20% of the population). We ASSUMED we could get to one of the Whiter beaches, But every road we went down was blocked by Thousands of people walking to the beach, All the beaches. Even the private beaches had security blocking them preventing anyone getting to it.
We tried to turn around and go back but by this point the only option we had was to go down a road with thousands of people walking up, In a brand new Landrover, Two very white people in the front. We smiled, Put on our brave faces and tried to act as relaxed and threatening as possible, It was okay for a few mins but eventually some people started to bang on the windows and the threats started. I had my knife on the dash. my girl had hers by the door, Both leaning away from the closed windows. We agreed that should somebody put a window in we would floor it through the crowed, Get back to the compound. Grab our buddies and get the fuck out within 10 mins before a Mob could form. St-Lucia is about 7 hours from Jo'Berg where we would be okay.
Lucky a Jacked up Hylux driven by an Africaans guy (Notorious for being armed to the teeth and not giving a fuck) was driving towards us with reckless abandon. People got out of his way as he turned into one of hte streets to his home, This gave us enough of a break to get off the road and into a side road that would take us back to the main strip where our Hotel/Compound.
The entire reason we received hostility was because we where White. We where not welcome on 'Their' beach. People in the UK, Europe, Canada and America do not realise just how Left wing and non-racist we are compared to the rest of the world. In Africa you have to choose where to eat based on what colour you are. White folk are not welcome in some establishment and vice versa.
obviously other people will have either experienced the same as us or the total opposite. Please don't let this put you off of South Africa. It is an amazing country and the people are incredibly friendly, Both Black and white, But for the love of god stay away from the Poor areas and the slums..