The environmental affairs portfolio originated in the
apartheid era. From 1994, under President
Nelson Mandela, it subsumed the
Ministry of Tourism, becoming the Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism with responsibility for the
Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. 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. 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). Throughout the post-apartheid era, forestry and fisheries had not been handled by the environment portfolio, but instead were the responsibility of the
Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry (until 2009) and later the
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (from 2009 to 2019). 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.''''''
Barbara Creecy was the inaugural holder of that office. ==List of ministers==