16 August 2007 - Media
Statement - Statement by the Office of Marthinus
van Schalkwyk, Minister of Environmental
Affairs and Tourism at the Designation Ceremony
for Table Mountain National Park Environmental
Management Inspectors, 16 August 2007
THURSDAY, 16 AUGUST 2007: In June 2005,
Minister van Schalkwyk announced the designation
of the first Environmental Management Inspectors
in the country. These EMIs (also known as
the Green Scorpions) were designated to
monitor compliance with and enforce national
environmental legislation.
“As I stand here today, there are 858 Environmental
Management Inspectors across all nine provinces.
In fact, the Inspectorate is now an established
unit with Inspectors in South African National
Parks (including those EMIs being recognised
today), the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park,
the Department of Environmental Affairs
and Tourism, all nine provincial environment
departments, and all provincial park authorities.
These EMIs cooperate on issues of training,
standard operating procedures, and interaction
with other key stakeholders,” said the Minister.
Prosecutors’ Guide
One of these key stakeholders is the National
Prosecuting Authority, whose prosecutors
across the country are responsible for prosecuting
the cases prepared by our EMIs in court.
The Minister announced that “for some time,
our department has been working to provide
support to these prosecutors, and today
I’m proud to introduce to you our new Guide
to Environmental Prosecutors. This Guide
was prepared from experience gained in environmental
prosecutions across the country.”
The guide consists of:
an overview of the constitutional and international
law context to environmental crime;
a detailed discussion of environmental legislation,
specifically looking at criminal offences,
and the powers of environmental enforcement
officers to do search and seize evidence;
and
guidance to conducting court trials in
environmental criminal cases, including
the drafting of charge sheets, expert scientific
witnesses; it also provides guidance on
issues of sentencing and the recovery of
costs that are unique to environmental transgressions.
The Guide will be made available to the
National Directorate of Public Prosecutions
and all its offices countrywide.
Achievements
As a group, the Environmental Management
Inspectorate has only just started to collate
enforcement statistics at a national level.
In 2006-7, the Inspectorate reported nearly
900 arrests and 134 convictions for environmental
crimes across the country. 235 directives
were issued in the 2006-7 financial year.
The Inspectorate believes that they are
still under-reporting results, and that
their 2007-8 report will be a better reflection
of what they are achieving.
The Minister further said that “the 630
EMIs in South African National Parks, who
manage and protect all our national parks,
form a core group of the Environmental Management
Inspectorate. Here in the Table Mountain
National Park, EMIs are enforcing both the
Protected Areas Act and the Marine Living
Resources Act. Since the Table Mountain
National Park’s Marine Protected Area’s
inception in 2004, EMIs have arrested 291
transgressors.”
The SANParks Environmental Management Inspectors
that were recognised today are playing a
crucial role in protecting the natural resources
in this World Heritage Area from environmental
criminals.
The graduation of the 20 EMIs today, is
the first Grade 5 EMIs in SANParks to attend
the Marine and Protected Areas Training
for Field Ranger EMIs.
Riaan Aucamp (Minister's Spokesperson)
