After being seen as a conservative practice, inappropriate to the development needs of African cities, planning is being reinvented as a way to manage urbanization towards greater sustainability and inclusivity. New planning approaches have been posited by agencies such as the UN-Habitat, with its New Urban Agenda. However, planning has developed in different ways across the globe, with significant variations across the global south and across Africa. Older forms of planning overlay newer ones, leading to a palimpsest of planning, shaped by politics, governance and institutions. Drawing on some 68 interviews, document reviews and existing academic work, this paper reflects on the experience of initiatives to remake planning in South Africa, historically an instrument of apartheid, on lines consistent with the new thinking. Although planning has been transformed in terms of several policies and legislation, it has not been able to realize its promises for socio-spatial transformation, except in limited ways. Its performance has been influenced in particular by the crisis in state structures in South Africa, rooted within a broader process of political economy and political settlement. The study thus raises questions about the prospects for new forms of planning in Africa and their promises.