South Africa

Howzit,
I worked in Nigeria for almost 3 years 2 years of that stationed in Lagos.Ikoyi is one of the more affluent areas of Lagos go and look on google earth you will see that Lagos in particular the areas you will be in are a series of interconnected islands, Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Lagos Island Lekki etc.
I loved every minute of my time there and never for 1 minute felt as threatened as I did living in joburg, you do hear stories but these could be "urban legends" I never heard of one person that I new having issues of safety there, you must just be sensible!! would you walk around Hillbrow at night?? even Sandton for that matter. Plenty of places to go bars clubs, cinemas ( I managed the build of the first multi cinema complex there)the people are great just take care of the scammers (called 419 ers there) English is the spoken language.
I was there in 2002 to 2005 so cant compare what the rand salary in hand is worth now ( I also dont know what SA salaries are anymore I have been in ME since 2005) that 7000 should be tax free providing you stay out of SA for the periods required by SARS so 7000 x 7.5 would give you R 52,500 if your prudent it never used to cost so much to life there. I hope this helps.