Nelson Mandela's 95th birthday was celebrated in South Africa last week and according to recent reports, his health is improving.

The iconic leader has great symbolic power when it comes to uniting a nation that was so badly divided for over a century by the policy of apartheid.

Yet fractures do remain and there is a fear that some of the cracks that exist will become far more visible without his presence.

There is already a perception that South Africa has "gone to the dogs" since Mandela left the Presidency in 1999, with much international focus centred on crime rates and HIV.

How much has the country changed since 1999?

Crime and Security

South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world. But it is a long-running issue. Between 1998 and 2000, South Africa ranked second among 60 countries when it came to incidences of murder and assault.

And although murder rates remain stubbornly high, they have fallen from 50-60 per 100,000 people in 1999 to 30.9 in 2012.

Sexual violence is also a major problem in a country which was branded the "rape capital of the world." But incidences of rape have been dropping in recent years and in 2012 there were 127.5 rapes per 100,000 members of the population - a figure that is still very high when compared to other countries.

The issue of rape also had a profound impact on the political landscape in 2005, when current President Jacob Zuma was put on trial for the alleged rape of a HIV positive AIDS activist. He was found not guilty and was elected as South Africa's third post-apartheid president four years later.

Overall crime figures have fluctuated over the past 14 years. According to stats by the South African Police Service, between 1999 and 2003 crime rose, before dropping significantly by a tune of 25 per cent. But around 2007 and 2008, crime began to increase slightly again with a rise in burglaries (by 8 per cent in 2010), shoplifting (32 per cent) and business burglary (14).

HIV and AIDS

In 1999, about 250,000 people in South Africa died of an AIDs related illness. But a decade later, this number had risen to over 300,000 people with the prevalence of the disease also having increased. However deaths from AIDs are falling from a peak of about 370,000 deaths ten years ago.

The current prevalence among adults stands at just over 17 per cent.

Zuma's rape trial also stirred controvery in regard to AIDS as the then-Head of the National AIDS Council admitted that he had sex with a woman that he knew to be HIV-positive. Zuma claimed that he had taken a shower after sex to minimize the chance of contracting the virus, an admission that seemed to indicate ignorance of the dangers of HIV.

Poverty and wealth distribution

According to World Bank statistics, the percentage of South Africans living under the poverty line had fallen from 38 per cent in 2000 to 23 per cent by 2006. 

But income inequality has gone in the other direction. South Africa's GINI coefficient (a means of measuring inequality) which was already quite high - mainly due to the legacy of apartheid - saw income disparity rise by 2009. It has one of the highest rates of inequality in the world.

While much focus has traditionally centred on the disparities between the "races", inequality has risen within each "racial group".

Unemployment is also an issue. In 1999, it was 23.3 per cent according to the International Monetary Fund and has not dropped. By 2010, it was a shade under 25 per cent with South Africa not immune from the global financial crisis, a rise in GDP per capita and a fall in national debt not withstanding.