South Africa is less peaceful now than it was a year ago. It has somehow found a way to drop a low bar even lower.

According to the Institute of Economics and Peace security index, South Africa ranks 144 out of 163 countries. This places it in the bottom 20 worldwide, just ahead of Ukraine, which has been at war with Russia for a year and a half.

Being from neighboring Zimbabwe, I’ve traveled to and from South Africa several times. Every time I went, I had to stay keenly aware of my surroundings and belongings. In the five years since I was last there, news stories have continued to pour out about how things have steadily gotten worse.

It’s possible to be safe in South Africa. Locals generally follow a few simple steps to do so.

1. Don’t Be a White Farmer

“Shoot to kill—kill the Boer; kill the farmer!” Julius Malema, leader of South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters party, has resurrected this popular apartheid-era chant. At a political rally in July, nearly 100,000 of his supporters filled the First National Bank stadium and feverishly echoed the chant, as did supporters at home.

When pressed on the lyrics, Malema and his supporters argue that they aren’t to be taken literally. Malema was taken to court on the matter, but a judge ruled in his favor, saying there is no proof that “the lyrics in the songs could reasonably be construed to demonstrate a clear intention to harm or incite to harm and propagate hatred.” The song is merely poetic and metaphorical, they say.

Yet South Africa has experienced 77 farm attacks in just the first three months of this year. Eleven white farmers and relatives were killed. Dozens more were shot, tied up, brutally beaten, and even tortured. Three have been killed since the July 29 rally.

It’s easy to assume that it’s big, strong farmers who are being targeted. But the criminals are cowardly. Fifty-two percent of the victims were over 60 years old. One of them was 89-year-old Elizabeth Lee, who was bludgeoned to death with a chair by a 15-year-old.

Malema and others argue that the song represents hatred against institutional racism, not specific people. But specific people, white farmers, are targeted and attacked almost every day.

2. Don’t Make Wrong Turns

Taking a wrong turn can swiftly transform into a deadly encounter in the volatile South African landscape.

According to an August 10 report by the Telegraph, British orthopedic surgeon Kar Hao Teoh was driving from the Cape Town airport with his wife and child when he took a wrong turn into a perilous township. South African police were impounding illegal minibus taxis. Violent strikes had broken out as a result. The unsuspecting Teoh was shot in the head in front of his family. The violent riots continued.

Being in South Africa requires near-constant hypervigilance. There are safe areas and suburbs. But it is far too easy to stumble into an explosive environment.

To stay safe, never make wrong turns, be wary of vehicles driving behind you for longer than five minutes, keep all valuables stowed out of sight, especially at traffic lights and stop signs, and be ready to make a quick getaway in your vehicle at any given moment. But even all that might not be enough.

3. Say Your Prayers

Just about everyone in South Africa is suffering. Taxes are sky-high, and the government is incompetent. Unemployment is rampant. Power cuts are a normal part of life. Millions of South Africans live in shanty towns and slums. They are angry and tired. They are plagued by violence, disease, filth, poverty and hunger. And they are told that it is because of persistent and institutional racism.

Does any of that sound familiar?

South Africa isn’t a war zone and white genocide isn’t a reality yet. The incendiary words are still just words. But both black and white South Africans are suffering from the nation’s rapid descent from one of the most prosperous countries in the world to what it is today.

When the angry, hungry, poor, frustrated South Africans finally snap, who will they attack first as they chant about killing the Boer?

Very soon, the only recourse South Africans will have is prayer. As Herbert W. Armstrong proved in The United States and Britain in Prophecy, the Dutch, British and Irish South Africans are also descendants of the nation of Israel, a nation with a special relationship with God.

Sadly, these South Africans have forgotten God. They gave away their God-given birthright. They gave South Africa up to communism and its consequent policies. The fruits are clear: With each passing day, surviving in South Africa is a much more difficult challenge.

Everything happening in South Africa is a harbinger of what is coming on the other descendants of Israel, particularly America and Britain.

“[We] are witnessing the fall of South Africa as a prelude to the accelerating descent of the United States and of the once great British company of nations,” our e-book South Africa in Prophecy states. “South Africa is the first major domino to fall in what will become a free fall into slavery of those once mightiest nations on Earth!”

Soon, trying to survive in these nations will be nearly impossible. The only solution is to remember God, turn to Him, and seek Him in prayer.

South Africa’s troubles will not fizzle out. They are going to get worse. And they are coming to America and Britain.

The power cuts, the racist chants, the riots, the violence, the hunger and the anger will continue to build. They will affect everyone, whether you are white or black, whether you make a wrong turn or not.

The only solution is to turn to God in repentance and prayer. That is the only way to survive.