In the 20th century, the South African justice minister was called the minister of justice. His purview included prisons until late 1990, when President F. W. de Klerk announced extensive prison reforms and established a separate Ministry of Prisons.[2] Constitutional matters were also a separate portfolio under the minister of constitutional development,[3][4] and then from 1994 under the minister of constitutional development and provincial affairs.[5][6] At the outset of the second cabinet of President Thabo Mbeki in June 1999, constitutional development was detached from provincial affairs and subsumed under justice, under the minister of justice and constitutional development.[7]
Three prime ministers have been minister of justice, including two – Jan Smuts and B. J. Vorster – who held the position directly before being elected prime minister. In 2004, Brigitte Mabandla became the first woman to be appointed to the portfolio.
The following institutions are housed in the justice and correctional services portfolio, although most have a significant degree of operational and statutory independence:
