South Africa Mystery Thorn Tree

I see these trees on my daily walk with my friend's dogs and I have no idea what kind of tree they are but I think they look great. I find them fascinating.

They have the most amazing "thorns" on their trunk and all their branches... I don't even know if you can call those things "thorns". I should say some trees of the same specie have little to no thorns, so presumably when you plant of of them you cannot be sure what you are going to get.

You see what I mean, serious "thorns"

.....on all the branches.

I think, but I really do not know for a fact, that they might be related to baobabs. Their leaf is similar, the general shape of the tree with large trunk and branches reminds me of baobabs.

I always managed somehow to miss the blooming season of baobabs, so I cannot compare the flowers, but my mystery tree has beautiful pink blooms. And it is blooming right now, so in late Summer to early Fall on this side of the equator.

And it isn't just a cultivated tree, it also grows in the wild which makes me think that it is a native of South Africa, though I should add that I saw either the same tree or a tree with similarly impressive "thorns" on their trunk in Trinidad.
This one I saw in the wild forest around Sabie.

If anybody kows the name of that tree and its relation to baobabs, please let me know. Just post a comment.

ADDED LATER: I did some hunting around the internet and this tree is called Chorisia Speciosa, and belongs to the Bombacaceae family as does the baobab !!!
Apparently its common name is Silk Floss Tree ...... I prefer Mystery Thorn Tree, but here you are.
...and it is native of Brazil or Argentina, so the ones I saw in the wild were escapees.

Interestingly the Kapok tree is also a member of this family (in fact some website refer to this tree as Kapok Tree). You can go and have a look at this and a all lot more on this website.
One online dictionary defines Kapok as; "the silky down that invests the seeds of a silk-cotton tree (ka·pok tree), Ceiba pentandra,  of the East Indies, Africa, and tropical America: used for stuffing pillows, life jackets, etc., and for acoustical insulation." so at least the other member of the family may after also be native of South Africa....... Problem is you cannot beleive everything you read, and especially no on the internet!