The day after the National Development Plan was officially launched on August 15, 2012, was one of the darkest in South Africa’s history and the darkest since the advent of democracy. On August 16, 2012, 34 miners were shot and killed in what became known as the Marikana Massacre. The period since has been just as fraught, with years of State Capture, followed by the Covid pandemic and then the collapse of Eskom and Transnet. It is, thus, no surprise, yet still deeply disappointing, that a ten-year review of the plan confirms that just about every target will be missed.