Administratively, the headquarters answers to the Chief of the Army.

[2] Units and subunits are attached as required for the task at hand.

When not required, those units remain part of their respective type formations.

The history of the brigade dates back to the late 1990s when HQ 43 Mechanised Brigade HQ provided the Headquarters of the Combined SADC Task Force and commanded the intervention stage of Operation Boleas in Lesotho in September 1998.

[3] Its mandate is: "To provide combat-ready land forces for the pursuance of national defence and the prevention of war, failing which, to jointly and preferably multinationally, swiftly and decisively achieve national security goals and collaboratively promoting peace and stability internally and externally in concurrence with international obligations to contribute to the development and upliftment of South Africa, its people and the African continent."