Between 1994 and 2009, the water affairs portfolio was conjoined with the forestry portfolio under the minister of water affairs and forestry. 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). With the appointment of Zuma's
second cabinet on 25 May 2014, the Water and Environmental Affairs portfolio was bifurcated, and a dedicated Ministry of Water and Sanitation was established. 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. 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. == List of ministers ==