Outlined above is one flight experience on Emirates, hardly a long history of dealing with EK. Flights are often only as good as the crew

I know a couple FAs from Singapore who work for Emirates and I asked both of them why they do not work for SQ and they both said they preferred to have a job that was fun

Both SQ and CX have a good product but I find them both to be rather sterile and not FUN

That said, I am not overly impressed with Emirates service to certain African destinations but I have flown EK a few times a month for the past 10 years and I have enjoyed it overall

If you can catch a decent connection through Dubai to Capetown at a competitive fare, I think you should go for it and will likely be impressed overall, particularly if you go on the A380 (and note Emirates now has new American flight partners)