Factionalism is rife within government currently and very sad to behold. It also comes with a lot of unintended consequences. One of those is the manner in which the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) hurt the South African Revenue Services (Sars), even though everything points to them being part of the same faction. In hurting the mines, the DMR limited profits and taxes, making Sars look like a fiscal laggard. The contributions by mining companies to the fiscus through company taxes and royalties are a crucially important feature of fiscal planning, which has been needlessly disrupted by DMR officials acting in ways that the courts have found to be errant and damaging to the economy. Clearly, the DMR has been shooting Sars in the foot.