Mr Brent Walters

Brent Walters always wanted to be a teacher and with his appointment as Head of the Western Cape Education Department (WCED), he has come full circle, right back to his roots. 

Brent was born in Claremont, an area his father was raised and where his parents met when his mother, originally from Wellington, enrolled for high school. He grew up in a loving and caring home environment, with firm boundaries in place.

He graduated as a teacher in 1986, after completing a BSc degree, majoring in Mathematics, a BSc Honours degree and a Higher Diploma in Education at the University of Cape Town (UCT) where he later went on to obtain a master’s degree in the field of Mathematics Education. 

Brent first job was at his alma mater where he taught Physical Sciences and Mathematics, the 2 subjects he enjoyed most at school. 

After teaching for almost a decade, Brent went to work as the education officer for Cape Town’s bid for the 2004 Olympic Games. He also subsequently held a number of senior management positions at the Department of the Premier, Department of Economic Development and Tourism, and the former Department of Sport and Recreation, before being appointed as Head of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport (DCAS). 

With a passion for education, Brent went out of his way to draw schools and education into every job he ever had. After serving 2 and a half terms at DCAS, he took the reins at the WCED on 1 April 2021.

He says, that as the leader of a large bureaucracy, you can sometimes lose sight of the greater purpose. “I am a teacher at heart, a math person, I was involved in sport and ended up in a department where we did music and art and culture, and what you see in museums. Life is made up of many parts and all the parts make us a whole and that’s what education is about.”