Middelburg — Liberty Coal, the owner of Optimum Colliery, has strongly denied allegations circulating on social media claiming the company paid R500,000 to community representatives for protection, describing the claims as false and fabricated.


The company said the message falsely claims Liberty Coal paid money to certain community leaders to manage communities and support the mine.

Part of the social media post reads verbatim: “We gave Nelly as Community representative R500 000 to Manage the communities and everyone had their cut so what's the rush now because all those who led all the wards should have benefited, this community wards leaders if they continue like this we'll have to charge them with Extortion and kick them out we'll run everything online but for now give them high hopes soon all the Mhluzi leaders will be out and we deal with farms, Hendrina, Pulleshop only 20km radius.” 


The post also refers to representatives from areas such as Mhluzi and Rockdale, claiming they had committed to supporting the mine. The message contains insulting remarks about community leaders, calling some of them “stupid” and suggesting they could be removed if they continued opposing the mine.

Liberty Coal Acting CEO Hlayiseka Chauke said the company strongly rejects the claims and that the message does not represent the organisation.

“The content of the message is completely inconsistent with Liberty Coal’s values, policies and way of operating. We categorically reject any suggestion of improper conduct or dealings with community representatives,” Chauke said.

Chauke said the company frequently deals with the spread of misleading information on social media.

“Liberty Coal is inundated on a daily basis with the baseless and unfounded spread of information, often seeking to progress the ulterior agendas of disaffected third parties,” he said.

He added that the company would take action against individuals responsible for spreading damaging misinformation.

“Liberty Coal will take action in relation to defamatory and damaging misinformation to protect its rights and reputation to the fullest extent,” Chauke said.

The controversy comes amid recent tensions between some community representatives in Mhluzi and Rockdale, following the relaunch of Liberty Coal’s stakeholder forum.

The forum had previously been disbanded in December last year before being re-established last month.

Reports indicate that some dissatisfied community members attempted to disrupt the process of establishing the new forum. However, their efforts were unsuccessful as other residents from Mhluzi and Rockdale supported the relaunch.

Chauke said the stakeholder forum was relaunched to ensure broader engagement with the mine’s stakeholders.

“These include our host communities, traditional councils, NGOs and other interest groups such as people with disabilities,” he said.