5th National Environmental Compliance Enforcement Lekgotla 2013

Event date: 2013-11-10 (All day) to 2013-11-15 (All day)

Introduction and background

Since 2006, the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) has hosted a series of multi-stakeholder conferences focused on environmental compliance and enforcement. The objective of these events is to bring together international, national, provincial and local authorities that are involved in environmental compliance to discuss topics of common interest, to develop capacity, to make recommendations and to develop strategies to tackle the challenges facing the environmental compliance and enforcement sector.

The following events have taken place in the past:

the first Environmental Enforcement Conference (EEC), February 2006, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN);
the second Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Lekgotla (ECEL), 2007, Golden Gate, Free State;
the third Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Lekgotla (ECEL), 2009, Port Alfred, Eastern Cape; and
the fourth Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Lekgotla (ECEL), 2012, Polokwane, Limpopo.

The attendees to these events typically comprise international, national, provincial and local environmental authorities; other relevant national departments, such as those administering labour, health, water, as well as mineral regulation. In addition, other key stakeholders in the criminal justice system, including the South African Police Services (SAPS) and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), are invited to participate. The usual number of attendees has varied between 250 to 300.

The 2013 programme includes four days for training, capacity-building, Environmental Management Inspectorate (EMI) workshops, plenary panel discussions and presentations. A gala dinner has also been added to the programme recently providing a high-level representative of the Ministry/Deputy Ministry or the DEA an opportunity to deliver a keynote address.

As stated above, the DEA has hosted four large multi-stakeholder events regarding environmental compliance and enforcement matters since 2006. These have been the national EEC in 2006 (KZN), the ECEL in 2007 (Free State), the ECEL in 2009 (Eastern Cape) and the ECEL (Limpopo) 2012. These events have been instrumental in:

maintaining a sense of inspectorate unity/cohesion among EMIs from various provinces or institutions;
providing a platform for EMIs to raise their key issues, concerns, challenges at a national forum;
motivating EMIs through the sharing of success stories, cases, awards, etc.;
facilitating networking with relevant role-players in the environmental compliance and enforcement sector, for example other national departments (water, health, labour, mineral regulation) as well as criminal justice stakeholders such as the SAPS, NPA and Justice College; and
capacitating EMIs through participation in plenary, panel, workshop and capacity-building sessions;

The 2013 event celebration

The Department of Environmental Affairs will host the 05th Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Lekgotla at the Arabella Hotel and Spa near Kleinmond in the Western Cape from 11-14 November 2013. This year’s lekgotla follows in the footsteps of 4 similar events in 2006 in KwaZulu Natal, in 2007 in the Free State, in 2009 in the Eastern Cape and in 2012 in Limpopo. These multi-stakeholder events bring together international, national, provincial and local authorities that are involved in environmental compliance and enforcement to discuss topics of common interest, to develop capacity, to make recommendations and to develop strategies to tackle the current challenges facing this sector in South Africa.

Lekgotla programme

The programme for the 2013 4-day event is divided into 2 main categories: the first 2 days are reserved for designated EMIs in national, provincial and local environmental authorities and parks boards - the first day will provide an opportunity for the Inspectorate to reflect on the highlights and challenges it has experienced since the previous lekgotla – this will include a set of workshops that will target key issues identified through the development of the National Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Strategy, an ongoing project led by the national Department of Environmental Affairs, aimed at assessing the current work of the Inspectorate and implementing interventions to improve future performance. The second day will be dedicated to a series of shortcourses that are designed to build the capacity of the EMIs on critical skills development topics.

The second part of the programme (days 3 and 4) will open up the lekgotla to external stakeholders in order to gather a broader perspective on the Inspectorate. On day 3, the EMI will be joined by sister national departments (such as the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, Agriculture, Labour,

Theme and purposes

The proposed theme for the ECEL, 2013 is, “The EMI Evolution: Unlocking the Potential”. The theme is aimed at conveying the message that Inspectorate is a dynamic network of compliance and enforcement officials, which are readily able to adapt to the changing environmental threats that face the country. The theme also recognises that although significant progress has been made by the Inspectorate in the past 8 years since its inception, there is always room for improvement on key compliance and enforcement activities.

Focus of discussions at the Lekgotla

The focus of discussions at the lekgotla will be the work of the Environmental Management Inspectorate, more commonly referred to as the “Green Scorpions” which is a network of designated Environmental Management Inspectors (EMIs) from various partner institutions involved in environmental compliance monitoring and enforcement. The objectives of the event are:

maintaining a sense of Inspectorate unity/cohesion among EMIs from various provinces or institutions;
providing a platform for EMIs to raise their key issues, concerns, challenges at a national forum;
motivating EMIs through the sharing of success stories, cases, awards, etc.;
facilitating networking with relevant role-players in the environmental compliance and enforcement sector, for example other national departments (water, health, labour, mineral regulation) as well as criminal justice stakeholders such as the SAPS, NPA and Justice College; and
capacitating EMIs through participation in plenary, panel, workshop and capacity-building sessions.

ECEL Shortcourse

All you need to know about Day 3 of the ECEL