This booklet assesses the first democratic South African government’s policies, legislation and delivery performance against the directives offered by the 1994 Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). The booklet focuses on the core directives in the RDP’s Chapters Two to Five, which encompass the four areas of key concern: meeting basic needs; developing our human resources; building the economy; and democratising the state and society. (The RDP’s first chapter is an introduction, while Chapter Six, on ‘Implementing the RDP’, has few concrete policy directives and the final chapter is a brief conclusion.)