The political head of the department is the Minister of Basic Education; as of May 2009[update] this is Angie Motshekga.

The department oversees all the schools in South Africa, sets up the curriculum for the different grades.

[2] In the 2010 national budget, the department received an appropriation of 6,166.2 million rand, and had 730 employees.

[4] In 2020, the brand partnered up with eMedia Investments to introduce an educational channel to help learners known as DBE TV on the OpenView platform.

In 2020, they had a tough year dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, where schools had to close its doors and open them again.