Under the current leadership, the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) has broken with the collective public–private approach of the past and is choosing haphazard engagement that is unfair to this country’s rich resource endowment. While the DMR fiddles, mining companies are being forced to derisk by investing outside the country to the detriment of South African citizens. The DMR should be stopped in its tracks because once companies leave, they are difficult to bring back unless they can be convinced of genuine change. Many other African countries are being described by local mining companies as far better investment destinations than South Africa, where the DMR rides roughshod over local mining companies to the detriment of closing South Africa’s economic inequality gap and alleviating poverty.