The minister of water and sanitation is a minister in the Cabinet of South Africa. 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.
During other periods, the water affairs portfolio was conjoined with other portfolios, including under the minister of water affairs and forestry from 1994 to 2009, under the minister of water and environmental affairs from 2009 to 2014, and, most recently, under the minister of human settlements, water and sanitation from 2019 to 2021.
Post-apartheid history
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.