INTRODUCTION South Africa is currently known as the most advanced, broad-based economy on the continent (South Africa Info, 2015). While South Africa has been developing, it has become more stable than before with its stability. Consequently, this essay will examine the meaning of the strength of state and how the strength has been changed in South Africa since 2005. Furthermore, the discussion on the current state of the nation will be attempted to explore by looking at the various debates, such as the social issues, the State of the Nation Address, the Budget Speech and Fragile States Index. A brief historical overview on South Africa will be stated to establish a comprehensive understanding of the development of South Africa with the changes of its strength. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW ON SOUTH AFRICA The Republic of South Africa was established in 1961 and many presidents were elected by popular votes among white citizens only, under apartheid (SAHO, 2015). When apartheid was abolished in 1994, Nelson Mandela has elected as the president under the first democratic election (South African Government). South Africa, today, is classified as a democratic country and rises as one of the world’s fastest growing economies as it has joined in BRICS, an association for five major emerging national economies, since 2010 (South African Government). MEANING OF STRENGTH OF STATE Power is often defined as ability that one holds in order to influence or to control other people’s behaviour (Macionis & Plummer, 2012:540). It is therefore important for the state or nation to know how to hold power in order to control its citizens. Because when the state fails to hold its power, the state becomes fragile and fragility refers to low capacity and poor state performance relating to development and security (Cilliers & Sisk, 2013:7). When we argue a state is fragile, this means that “the state is unable to provide for basic human security or create the public goods and conditions needed for gains in human development” (Cilliers & Sisk, 2013:7). Four drivers of fragility have been distinguished by Cilliers and Sisk (2013:7), which refer to poor or weak governance, high degrees of conflict or violence, high levels of inequality and economic exclusion, and poverty. It is supposed that strong states exercise well across these categories, whereas weak states show a mixed profile of fulfilling expectations in some fields and poor performance in others. Therefore, we will take consideration of each driver into the state of South Africa now and before. South Africa under “Fragile Stability” According to the article, Fragile Stability: State and Society in Democratic South Africa, South Africa is characterised as “fragile stability” with the contradictory nature of its transition ten years after apartheid (Beall, Gelb & Hassim, 2005:682). The nation faces enormous social problems, such as poverty and inequality, unemployment, HIV/AIDS and personal and property insecurity (Beall, Gelb & Hassim, 2005:682). Even though South Africa has one of the world’s highest levels of inequality and high rate of unemployment and South Africa still faces several issues, statistical data shows that the country has developed and even able to finance its own development programmes. Firstly, it is officially estimated that the broad unemployment rate was 41.8 per cent in 2003, while the recent statistical data shows much dropped rates to 35.