“Green Scorpions” to get 800 inspectors in 2006

As taken from the Business Day, 24 February 2005, (original article by Margie Inggs).

The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism will intensify its crackdown on environmental offenders by appointing 800 environmental management inspectors (EMIs) across the country by the middle of the year, director-general Pam Yako said this week.

Speaking at the first South African environmental enforcement conference in Durban, Yako said the effectiveness of the Environmental Management Inspectorate had improved as the number of inspectors had grown.

The Green Scorpions, as they have been nicknamed, have been cracking down on environmental crimes since the first 26 inspectors were appointed last June. They monitor compliance with and enforce not only the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) but all national legislation dealing with the protection of the environment, including the new Protected Areas Act, the new Biodiversity Act and the new Air Quality Act. Within the next 18 months, the department hopes to add a new Waste Act to this list.  Under the Environment Conservation Act 73 of 1989, the maximum penalty for not complying with environmental impact assessment regulations is R100 000 - a mere inconvenience for a large company, but NEMA provides for fines of up to R5 illion.

In the next two years, the national Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism will engage with provincial environment departments about the participation of municipalities in the Environmental Management Inspectorate.

Yako said her department, together with provincial environmental departments and the parks authorities, had developed a number of key tools to support inspectors across the country.  "Probably the most important of these is the bridging training course, which is being rolled out across the country," she said.  "This is an intensive training course designed to prepare our existing enforcement officials for their new powers and responsibilities. In 2006/07 this bridging training course will be developed into a more permanent basic training course for [inspectors]." In addition, the national department has installed a tip-off line, called the Environmental Crimes and Incidents hotline. People can call it 24 hours a day on 0800-205005.

Yako said she wished to continue with the environment court in Hermanus, which was a successful joint pilot project between her department, the director of public prosecutions in Cape Town and the department of justice and constitutional development. "In the environment court, the prosecution success rate is 75 percent and at least 25 of those convicted have received sentences of direct imprisonment without the option of a fine." Yako said that while environmental offences had not been prioritised by other criminal justice institutions in the past, this had changed significantly over the past year.

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