Non-compete clauses in employment contracts

What is the extent of a non-compete clause in an employment contract in SA?

My company is currently going through mass layoffs. We are all feeling quite negative about the layoffs & how they were handled, and it's extremely mentally taxing to go to bed at night wondering if you'll be able to work the next day.

In the contract that I signed, there's a non-compete clause that I may not work for a competitor for two years following the end of my employment with the company.

1. Is this actually legal and enforceable?
2. If so, will I be protected if I choose to end my employment without being retrenched, in search of job security?
3. If not, will it still be valid if my employer chooses to end my employment i.e. I am retrenched, and then apply to work for a competitor thereafter?
4. Is it still valid if I work for a competitor in a different role? For example if I am currently a Cloud Support Engineer and apply for a role as an AI Engineer being advertised by a competitor?
5. If none of these play out in my favour, would it extend to freelancing within the same field for 2 years until the non-compete period has ended?

I know this is something that I willingly signed and I should have been asking those questions then but I've just begun my 9th year with this company. I was a week shy of 21 years old when I signed the contract and had no one I could ask for this kind of advice. When I asked my manager at the time, he'd said that the company would only really enforce the clause if mass amounts of people left because they were being poached by competitors but that the company doesn't really enforce it.