The evolution of South Africa's strategic policy directions was analyzed through the application of natural language processing (NLP) techniques to the texts of the Reconstruction and Development Plan, Growth, Employment And Redistribution, the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative South Africa, the New Growth Path, and the National Development Plan. In statistical, probabilistic topic modeling analysis, nine topics are identified across all development plans. In the decreasing order of proportion of development plans' documents, the topics relate to: climate change and resources
green economy
corruption and security
health
skills and training
economic growth
fiscal policy and macro-economy
reconstruction and democracy
and education. The study is a background note for the South Africa Systematic Country Diagnostic.