This article evaluates the implementation of national development policies against over-arching targets since South African democracy in 1994. The government designed and adopted national public policies to serve socio-economic developmental purposes, namely, the Reconstruction and Development Programme in 1994, Growth, Employment and Redistribution Strategy (GEAR) in 1997, Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP) of 2018 but implemented since 2008, the National Growth Path (NGP) in 2010 and National Development Plan (NDP) in 2012. The implementation of RDP, IPAP, NGP and NDP were punctuated by review initiatives such as Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) and Project Consolidate for municipalities. However, significant policy goals have eluded successful implementation. Theories of policy implementation and development provide a point of departure to deduce the concept of developmentalism in the context of Sou