How about Malawi, very nice people, easy cheap travel, huge lake, or Zambia for Livingstone and Vic Falls, Namibia for the coast and the Etosha, SA for most everything, Mozambique for the coast, Kenya and Tanzania for game viewing and mountain climbing, the choice is huge I have been to all these and more and I would say all southern african countries are equal when it comes to traveller safety but bad stuff happens the world over Africa does not have the monopoly.
Read up some more and go with what you want to do rather than where is safest, everybodys opinion is different, thats normal and to be expected.
Phil J
moderator