To answer a few questions in the previous comments - yes, everyone I have encountered speaks English. It is one of the 3 official languages in each province. It is the only language I have heard spoken by academics at the university as well. Even though I am working with kids who are considered to have poor English (they converse with their peers in other languages - that makes it hard for me to roam around and listen to how they are working out the problems in lab) they understand me well and can communicate fairly well.
As for segregation, there are areas which are clearly very expensive and other areas which are worse than the worse slums in the US. I have not gone anywhere alone, and I have only interacted with people who are well educated with good jobs. There is so much crime here because of the huge difference between the haves and the have-nots. The prices here are similar to the US - the cars, the houses, the food - they're probably on average half the cost of what we pay in the US, so quite similar. However, my host told me that being a gas station attendant is
considered a good working class job. This came up when we were at the pump, and we were discussing the pros and cons of not being able to pump your own gas. In South Africa (as in New Jersey and Oregon) the attendant is the only one that can pump. It works well here though because the job is coveted so the people work hard and quickly to take care of your car. If they don't, they will be replaced. The people having this job earn approximately $3000 per year, though, full time. So that's a 10th of an average US salary, yet the cost of living is about half of ours. And that is for someone with a "good" working class job. Apparently 30-40% of the population is unemployed. The average salary is quite high, though, because of how rich the rich are - they total swamp out the non-existent salaries of the poor. Even though Aparthide is gone, the effects are still quite rampant.
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