South Africa is a country that has the biggest sky I have ever seen. It is filled with dancing, rhythm, singing, generosity, laughter, lions, leopards, elephants, surfing, table mountain, the Kruger park, the Web Ellis trophy. It is the place I fell in love with my husband and the place I wanted to call home.

I have been in SA, off and on now for 3 years. I run the Shuttleworth Foundation and work towards a better society for those that have not had the same privileges I have had growing up.

Recently, after escalating violence, land claims and the depreciating Rand, we sadly decided to leave the country and go back to the UK. Whilst it was a tough decision to come to, it was a calm one.

Today, for the first time, I felt panic start to rise in the country.

The attacks on ‘foreigners’ have been getting more prevalent and are spreading around the country. They are not isolated in the desperate townships, they are in the centres of cities, and rural areas alike. I have been sent emails from university administrations asking for mattresses and blankets as they are sheltering students, hiding from fellow scholars (yes, fellow scholars!) in their halls.

I have just arrived back from my weekly trip to Cape Town and whilst driving from Nelspruit airport back to Komatipoort, the border town we live in, there was a noticeable difference in the traffic. Vehicles laden with everything from goats to fridges were driving in the direction of Mozambique. The estimates are that 15,000 have fled the border already. If what we saw is anything to go by, I would be surprised if it were so few.

We stopped at the Spar to pick up something for supper. Next to Spar is a bank, and I was astounded to see a long long queue of people, calmly waiting to empty money out of their accounts. All the news stories, the US and Germany warning citizens not to travel here, the ripples of unease in my friends and colleagues did not shake me as much as that queue.

We are leaving in two weeks, and it can not come soon enough.