I couldn't agree more with you, @joanstewart! I thought I'd take a look at the Gini coefficients for those six countries I mentioned and see the extent to which dissatisfaction with standard of living correlates with inequality. I also think visible, rampant corruption and its products - the ones you've mentioned above - have a major role to play in that dissatisfaction.

South Africans simply deserve better than what they're getting. They were sold a bill of goods that they were getting a democracy along with its fruits that would overturn a great historical wrong, and instead they got, well...this.