Here's my opinion of why there's anxiety - although objective analysis and introspection are quite rare:

South Africa's school education system is dismal. The black education system was horrific, and designed to create a permanent underclass. The white education system, while far better, emphasised conformism, rather than innovation. Still it produced Elon Musk, so it couldn't have been that bad. Today, limited resources, poor planning, and stupid teachers (protected by a powerful union) have led to our near-bottom position in world rankings.

It was recently revealed that the dominant teachers' union has been selling posts in some provinces (in black schools). Bizzarely, parents in School Governing Bodies, who would presumably be expected to look after their childrens' interests, were in on this scam. The rest of Africa seems to have less dysfunctional education systems.

A more sensitive point is that South Africa also has a small middle class (largely white), with a huge amount of wealth, but diminishing brain power due to emigration. Their self-preservation instincts mean that development is often stifled because of their needs. Want to build a high-density development close to a city centre, or a rapid-transit system? Not near these NIMBYs (they delayed a much-needed Bus Rapid Transit link between central Johannesburg and Sandton for years because it passed their leafy suburbs, it was finally rerouted last year). Want to build a high speed train service, for these same people - one that they have come to love? Their political representatives tried to kill it. Want to improve the freeways funded by electronic tolling to eliminate multi-hour traffic delays? - they try their utmost to sabotage it. Social solidarity is dead, and many are utterly opposed to transformation - many white government school governing bodies have managed to create a situation akin to apartheid, by cheating on admissions, and co-opting a few government officials by allowing their children in. I expect this sort of attitude to backfire quite badly, which is why I am heading for the exits myself.

South African business is dominated by monpollists, and the government lacks the skill to rein them in. Our dominant cellphone networks have been ripping consumers off for years, and use the judicial system to stymie remedies.

The list goes on.

Is the anxiety only about the poor state of affairs in SA? Or put another do the northern nations have anything to offer other than not being SA?

Yes. The rest of Africa seems to offer a "clean slate" and a decent attitude. An SA school principal told me a story: a Cameroonian technician was installing a security system at his school's computer centre. The Cameroonian was contemptuous of South Africa - he said no one would steal from a school in Cameroon, since it was a place of learning. Whether or not he was blowing smoke, it seems to sum up the perceived differences between SA and the rest of Africa.

Another way to look at it is that white South Africans jealously guard their piece of the pie. Black South Africans are trying to get a bigger slice of the same pie. Other countries in Africa are focused on growing their pies. Oh, and the South African stock market is booming because South African companies find it more profitable to help the rest of Africa bake pies.

Right next door to Cameroon there is an issue where non-South Africans have not just stolen equipment from a school, but hundreds of actual students. The Cameroonian in that anecdote does not paint an accurate picture of the sanctity of schools in a "South Africa vs Rest of Africa" sense. It may be the case in his own locality (and many others), but that doesn't mean the rest of the continent follows the same rules apart from SA.

> Still it produced Elon Musk, so it couldn't have been that bad.

You can't look at an outlier to make a statement about the average.