The minister has political responsibility for the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE).

[citation needed] The environmental affairs portfolio originated in the apartheid era.

[2] When he announced his first cabinet on 10 May 2009, President Jacob Zuma severed the environment portfolio from the new Ministry of Tourism and gave it the water affairs function, creating the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs.

[3] However, with the appointment of Zuma's second cabinet on 25 May 2014, this portfolio was bifurcated, creating the dedicated Ministry of Environmental Affairs to oversee the Department of Environmental Affairs (and a separate Ministry of Water and Sanitation to oversee water affairs).

When he announced his second cabinet on 29 May 2019, President Cyril Ramaphosa assigned forestry and fisheries to the environment portfolio, creating the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.