Like Gulliver, South Africa’s giant mining industry is being tied down. As Gulliver displeased the powers of Lilliput, the mining industry has displeased government in wanting to reduce employee numbers. As mining leadership has reiterated, decisions to reduce jobs are never taken lightly, with involuntary retrenchments the last resort. The real root causes of mining’s current overwhelming problems include the drastic fall of commodity prices, rising costs, plummeting values on world stock exchanges, oversupply, disinvestment and reams of government red tape. Gulliver was charged with treason for, among other crimes, polluting, even though in doing so he was saving countless lives. Hopefully, someone will also help the South African mining sector to escape destruction, in recognition of its invaluable contribution to the struggling South African economy.