Since 2006, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, working in collaboration with MINTECH Working Group IV (Compliance and Enforcement), has hosted a series of multi-stakeholder conferences focused on discussing matters of environmental compliance and enforcement.

The objective of these types of events is to bring together a diverse set of stakeholders, both governmental and non-governmental, 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. In particular, the Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Lekgotla (ECEL) seeks to maintain a sense of unity and cohesion amongst the various national, provincial and local organs of State that comprise the Environmental Management Inspectorate, to motivate EMIs through the sharing of success stories, cases and awards, to facilitate networking with relevant role-players; and to capacitate EMIs through participation in plenary, panel, workshop and capacity-building sessions.

Participants in the ECEL typically include national, provincial and local environmental departments and conservation entities, related sector departments responsible for water and sanitation, health, labour and minerals and energy, criminal justice role-players including the National Prosecuting Authority, the South African Police Service, South African Revenue Service and Financial Intelligence Centre. International environmental regulators from the United States, the United Kingdom, as well as regional authorities from Namibia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe have also been invited to share their best practice experiences. More recently, retired EMIs (EMI Stalwarts) have also been invited to present at the ECEL, in order to share their many years of experience in working in this sector.

In order to broaden the scope of the perspectives beyond the opinions of governmental regulators, representatives from non-governmental stakeholders have also been invited to provide their opinions on the performance of the Inspectorate in giving effect to the environmental right guaranteed in section 24 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. Past guest speakers include representatives from non-governmental organisations, academia, journalists, industry associations, environmental impact assessment practitioners and the judiciary.

Thus far, the ECEL has been hosted across all 9 provinces in the country, with the following events being held:

first Environmental Enforcement Conference (EEC), 2006, Durban, KZN | second Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Lekgotla (ECEL), 2007, Golden Gate, Free State | third Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Lekgotla (ECEL), 2009, Port Alfred, Eastern Cape | fourth Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Lekgotla (ECEL), 2012, Polokwane, Limpopo | fifth Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Lekgotla (ECEL), 2013, Hermanus, Western Cape | sixth Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Lekgotla (ECEL), 2015, Rustenburg, North West | seventh Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Lekgotla (ECEL), 2017, White River, Mpumalanga | eighth Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Lekgotla (ECEL), 2019, Kimberley, Northern Cape | and the ninth Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Lekgotla (ECEL), 2022, Muldersdrift, Gauteng.