Current interests in South Africa’s mining industry are being crippled to make its assets available cheaply to connected companies, South African Institute of International Affairs’ Governance of Africa’s Resources Programmes researcher Ross Harvey suggests in a recent opinion article in Business Day, which is headed ‘Kleptocracy upsets delicate balance of mutual interests in mining’. In short, what Harvey is suggesting is that connected forces are at work, first to lower the value of mining and then to move in and take over stricken mines. However, the cripple-and-capture strategy is now so exposed that its chances of success are receding by the hour, let alone by the day. Their fully exposed and flimsy butterfly-net equivalent is destined for abject failure.