This chapter explores the evolution of economic development planning discourse in South African cities from 1994 to the present day. Drawing on the life and death of three urban policy concepts, ‘Local Economic Development’, ‘Transit-oriented Development’ and ‘Smart Cities’, this paper contrasts the situational merits of normative planning in the post-conflict/nation-building period (1994–2008) with its role in the subsequent economic malaise gripping South African cities. Out of necessity rather than Damascene conversion, the South African body politic is implicitly reassessing the role of the State in the realisation of its economic objectives. Heralding an incipient pragmatic turn, policymakers are reluctantly looking to private initiative to deliver public goods in the vacuum left by State failure. Amid this interregnum, urban practitioners face a choice either eschewing or embracing pragmatism in practice and discourse. The first path—the continued elevation of abstract planning ideals over the messy reality on the ground—leads to the deepening irrelevance of our profession in broader policy debates and co-option by short-term political interests. In contrast, the pragmatic planner, freed from grand narratives, is absorbed by identifying and understanding interventions that work—that impact citizens’ material wellbeing in an immediate and measurable way. To distil, adapt and replicate interventions that work, the pragmatic planner appreciates the role of functional theory—how cities actually work—as an essential precondition for effective policymaking. By augmenting each stage of the policy process—from problem definition and design to implementation and post hoc evaluation—with empirical evidence and applied theories on proximate causes and effects, the pragmatic planner is better positioned to regain a foothold at the policy table.