COMMUNITY members of Middleburg, Hendrina and Witbank in Mpumalanga are pleading with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to cancel its application to seize Gupta-owned Optimum Mine.
The members visited the NPA offices in Silverton, east of Tshwane on Tuesday, 14 December to deliver a memorandum of demands.
This comes after the Investigating Directorate (ID) announced on Wednesday, 8 December that it had filed two related court applications to recover the stolen funds as per the State of Capture Report, which detailed how Tegeta Resources, a company owned and controlled by members of the Gupta family, acquired Optimum Coal Holdings from Glencore for R2,1 billion.
ID said on it also served the respondents the application.
But according to the community members, the application will have a negative impact on them, as almost 3 000 families relied on the mine.
They said they understand that the NPA needs to do its job, but this cannot be done at their expense.
The spokesman of the community, Clifford Masinga (43), said when the mine was closed down in 2018 it affected them badly, but when a new investor came, things began to look up.
“The NPA cannot make decisions without talking to the residents who are benefitting from the mine. We need to be included in their plans. We understand that there is case going on but now the issue is bigger than that,” he said.
He said they are begging the NPA to cancel the application and come and engage with the community.
Bongi Mahlangu (38) said she runs her business in the mine.
She said if it closes down, she will be left with nothing.
“We are in a bad situation. We can’t afford to have this mine closed down as the whole community relies on it,” she said.
The community members said they would continue to protest outside the NPA offices until they get answers.
They said they are giving the NPA 14 days to respond to their demands.
“If we are not happy with the response, we will escalate it further,” said Clifford.
Deputy national director of the NPA, Advocate Rodeny De Kok accepted the memorandum on behalf of the institution.
