The current very low contribution of only 4% to gross domestic product (GDP) by the South African mining sector needs to be firmly uplifted for the good of the South African people. Advisory firm Eunomix CEO Claude Baissac rightly describes the 4% contribution as being ridiculously low. Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe must go all out to double that percentage to 8% and, once that is achieved, to double it again to 16% of GDP, which is by no means excessive and which reflects South Africa’s resources potential far more appropriately. This time round, Cabinet should ensure that the Treasury is precluded from repeating its past, which hurt the South African people. South Africa’s remarkable resource endowment must be allowed to help drive the economy in the same way as the resource endowments of Australia, Canada and Chile are allowed to do in the economies of those countries – with wise government support.