- Despite profitable growth, Sasol refuses to negotiate a fair buyout with community members facing health harms from toxic emissions.
- Meanwhile, Sasol has spent high sums in settlements over court cases and fines concerning its operations near Mossville.
WASHINGTON, D.C., November 14, 2025 – South African global chemicals and energy company Sasol Limited is holding a meeting with shareholders today in Johannesburg to discuss profits and revenue. Thousands of miles away in Mossville, Louisiana, a historically Black community is fearing serious health harms caused by toxic emissions of highly carcinogenic chemicals from Sasol’s Lake Charles Chemical Complex.
Sasol’s massive footprint has decimated Mossville’s once self-sufficient community, founded by formerly enslaved people, into something unrecognizable and uninhabitable. The people of Mossville have a simple message for Sasol shareholders: Sasol is a bad neighbor.
“Sasol claims that they are good neighbors, however, that is far from the truth,” said Carolyn Peters, President of Concern Citizens of Mossville. “Our once beautiful, self-sufficient and thriving community has been inundated for generations, with toxins in the air, water, and soil, and no one is being held accountable! Since Sasol proposes to be ‘good neighbors,’ then, Sasol should finish the unfinished business of their last voluntary buyout, and get residents out of harm’s way.”
For over a decade, these Mossville community members have been trying to negotiate a fair home buyout deal with Sasol that would enable them to buy similar homes in safer areas. They viewed Sasol’s previous offer as offensively low, leaving some families with no choice but to remain in their homes and continue to be subjected to emissions from Sasol’s plant.
Meanwhile, Sasol has paid tens of millions of dollars in settlements with its shareholders related to the Lake Charles plant, settlements over court cases concerning health harms from certain emissions, and fines to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Despite these payments and projections that Sasol’s profits have increased since 2024, Sasol continues to tell Mossville residents that it is not financially feasible for the company to negotiate fair buyouts for the remaining residents in Mossville.
“Negotiating fair buyouts for community members is what a good, decent neighbor would do. Especially considering that Sasol is expected to make even greater profits in 2025 compared to the previous year,” said Maryum Jordan, EarthRights International’s Senior Managing Attorney. “Mossville residents are ready to find a solution. Sasol must negotiate a fair property purchase so these people can live somewhere without the fear of continuous air, water, and soil pollution.”
While Sasol refuses to help Mossville community members relocate, the company is taking steps to seek exemptions from regulatory requirements for air emissions in both South Africa and the United States. In some cases, Sasol asked for special exemptions from clean air regulations, undermining the safety of nearby and global communities.
In 2024, Sasol appealed an air-quality regulation for sulphur dioxide in South Africa, and the Ministry of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment granted the appeal, allowing Sasol to set its own pollution limits rather than following the minimum emissions standards set by the government. In July 2025, the Trump Administration granted Sasol’s request for a regulatory exemption from EPA regulations for hazardous organic emissions standards.
Sasol has refused, on two separate occasions, to negotiate with Mossville property owners after they were ready to find a solution to the pollution problems generated by the plant. Sasol again refused to negotiate with community members in May 2025, despite initial indications that the company was open to discussions.
“You need to move the people who want to leave Mossville and pay them a fair price for their property. That’s what I would say to Sasol,” said Mossville property owner Stafford Frank. “And stop gaslighting. Because you’ve done it twice.”
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Learn more and see our advertisement in today’s edition of South Africa’s Business Day.
Media Contact:
Daniela Colaiacovo, Global Communications Director, EarthRights International
+1 (703) 975-0608, daniela.colaiacovo@earthrights.org
