South Africa’s current economic growth is hopelessly inadequate to drive the socioeconomic changes that are so desperately needed. But, while one would expect improved economic growth to result from an end to minerals legislation delays and Mining Charter uncertainty, the status quo may be a blessing in disguise when one considers the haphazard mood of the errant Department of Mineral Resources (DMR), which may just come up with something ten times more surprising. This huge trust deficit is pulling the carpet from under mining investment at a time when the DMR is obliged by the Constitution to do all in its power to prepare the industry for the next upturn.