Liberty Coal's Formal Establishment of Stakeholder Forum

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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 operations in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner.

The formation of the forum marks an important milestone in Liberty Coal’s efforts to strengthen transparent engagement, accountability, and collaboration with the communities and stakeholders affected by its operations.

Following a period of significant change within the company, as Liberty Coal advances its plans to recapitalise and re-operationalise 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 host communities, traditional councils, NGOs, and other interest groups, including people living with disabilities, ensuring that the forum reflects the diverse voices and perspectives present in the region.

Liberty Coal’s Community Outreach Programme attended a total of eight community engagement meetings hosted over a two-week period in community halls across the Steve Tshwete region. This direct community contact allowed the company’s Stakeholder Management department to engage directly with community-facing issues relating to each host community.

Through these engagements, Liberty Coal was able to better understand community priorities, concerns, and development needs, helping to inform future social investment and development initiatives linked to the company’s operations.

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 structured platform for engagement between the mine and surrounding communities on issues affecting the environment, social responsibility, community development, and social investment.

The forum is also intended to promote ongoing dialogue and cooperation, enabling stakeholders to contribute to discussions on how mining activities can support inclusive and sustainable local development.

Following the filing of its Social and Labour Plan (SLP) 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, where members constituted themselves into various committees, including employment, skills development, and enterprise development.

During this inaugural meeting, the forum also adopted its terms of reference and tabled its meeting schedule for the coming year, establishing a framework to guide future collaboration and oversight.

The committees are expected to play a critical role in identifying community development opportunities, supporting local economic participation, and ensuring that the commitments contained in the Social and Labour Plan translate into tangible benefits for surrounding communities.

“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.