The minister has political responsibility for the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources.

[2] Pik Botha of the National Party was the minister between 1994 and 1996;[3] he was the last politician to oversee mineral resources who was not a member of the African National Congress.

In 1999, the Ministry of Minerals and Energy became the first ministry in the history of the South African government in which both top positions were filled by women (with Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka as minister and Susan Shabangu as her deputy).

[6] Soon after the ministries were merged into the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy, the respective departments were likewise merged into the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.

[7] This merger lasted only five years: on 30 June 2024, appointing his third cabinet, Ramaphosa announced that energy would be detached from the mineral resources portfolio again, now becoming the prerogative of a new minister of electricity and energy, and a separate minister of mineral and petroleum resources would be appointed.