This paper examines the relative paucity of curriculum offerings in design history and design education programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in South Africa. The neglect of design history suggests a wholesale under-appreciation of the role of history and design development in industrial and economic production within the country in recent decades, as well as a disconnect between the relevant policy makers and the tertiary institutions in the country. The inexplicable lack of realisation of and response by business, state and society to the closure of the National Design Institute of South Africa in the early 2020s is an example of this disjunction.