The minister has political responsibility for the Department of Water and Sanitation.

The office in its current form was re-established in August 2021; it formerly existed between May 2014 and May 2019.

[1] When he announced his first cabinet on 10 May 2009, President Jacob Zuma severed those portfolios and conjoined water affairs with the environment portfolio instead, creating the minister of water and environmental affairs (while forestry moved to the minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries).

[3] However, on 29 May 2019, Zuma's successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa, conjoined the Department of Water and Sanitation with the Department of Human Settlements, creating the minister of human settlements, water and sanitation in his second cabinet.

[4] This merger was short-lived: during a cabinet reshuffle on 5 August 2021, Ramaphosa announced that the Ministry of Water and Sanitation would be re-established as an independent ministry under Senzo Mchunu.