Liberty Coal Management and its key partners concludes a successful election of Stakeholder Forum. Picture Credit: Supplied
By Thulane Madalane
Middelburg – Owner and operator of Optimum Colliery, Liberty Coal (Pty) Ltd (Liberty Coal), is proud to
announce the formal establishment of its Stakeholder Forum, in line with the mining charter and its
commitment to conduct its operations in an environmentally and socially sustainable way.
Following a period of significant change within the company, as Liberty Coal advances its plans to
recapitalise and re-operationalise the Optimum Colliery, the company recognised the importance of
establishing a fully representative Stakeholder Forum. The forum is designed to ensure meaningful
community participation and broad engagement with all of Liberty Coal’s stakeholders.
These include our host communities, traditional councils, NGO’s and other interest groups such as
people with disabilities.
Liberty Coal’s Community Outreach Programme attended a total of eight community engagement
meetings hosted over a period of two weeks in community halls all over the Steve Tshwete region.
This direct community contact allowed our Stakeholder Management department to engage
directly with community facing stakeholder issues as they relate to each individual host community
in order to better understand our host communities’ needs.
Liberty Coal CEO, Hlayiseka Chauke, described the Community Outreach Programme as “an
earnest effort to establish and entrench our relationship with the people of Steve Tshwete”.
“Liberty Coal’s approach to mining is different, we want to work directly with our communities so
that we structure our social plans based on their needs, not through third parties and the like. We
intend to make social investments that directly change the lives of the people who make our
operations sustainable” said Chauke.
The Stakeholder Forum has been established to create a platform for the mine and the community
to engage on issues affecting the community, the environment, social responsibility and social
investment.
Following the filing of its Social and Labour Plan for the period 2025 -2029, Liberty Coal undertook
to appropriately and democratically reconstitute its Stakeholder Forum. The forum serves as an
important mechanism to support the company’s unique ownership structure, which includes a 5%
shareholding in Liberty Coal held by the Liberty Coal Optimum Colliery Community Development
Trust.
“This structure is a direct bridge between the mine and the community” Chauke added.
Following its election, the Stakeholder Forum held its first meeting on Friday 06 March 2026,
wherein members constituted themselves into various committees, including employment, skills
development and enterprise development. The Forum also adopted its terms of reference and
tabled its schedule of meetings for the coming year.
“We are optimistic that the establishment and finalisation of the new Stakeholder Forum will
contribute to social stability in our area of operations and foster a spirit of partnership and
inclusivity in and around the broader Steve Tshwete region” said Chauke.
