The South African mining industry catalyses a myriad of value-adding economic linkages in engineering, banking, law, energy, entrepreneurship . . . and the list could go on. When mining is damaged, so are all those linkages. The knock-on effect is immense. Yet Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane is lighthearted about the harm that Mining Charter III, exploration hold-ups, a faulty cadastre system and a legion of other commissions and omissions are bringing down on school leavers who will soon be looking for their first jobs, and university graduates in mining who have been lured into the industry only to face dead-ends. The poor legislative framework is burning the house down. Yet no fire brigade is on the way to douse the flames. If local mining continues to be vandalised the way it is, it will ultimately disappear altogether, except in its deadly, nontaxpaying and illegal form.