This absolutely,
I have lived in the SA winelands for 8 years and while there are places in cape town and the big cities i would avoid and certainly not walk at night, in Paarl i can walk to and from the pub (quite often half cut) and i have never had a problem.
As for Mandela the man is a saint, focus less on why he went to prison (he started the armed uprising, which i aplaud) and more on what he did when he came out. Imagine if you had been imprisoned on portsea island for 27 years and then when released urged your own race to calmly and peacefully move to a multiracial society, i am in awe of the man.