Willem Botha was born on 1 April 1962 in Pretoria, South Africa.
Willem started his career as Sculptor at Shows and Exhibitions in the South African Defence Force in 1981.  He was mentored by Artists like Andre Prinsloo and Jan van Der Merwe. 

In 1986, he moved to Namibia where he was a Sculptor for the Windhoek State Museum.
During the time  in Windhoek, he had several one man and group expeditions in various galleries in Windhoek and Swakopmund. In 1988 he was commissioned to remake the Atlas Sculpture on the House Hohenzollern Building in Swakopmund.

In 1990, he moved to Cape Town where he sculpted full time. Willem did some freelance work for Jean Doyle, helping with the bronze casting of her work. During his time in Cape Town, he exhibited in several galleries in and around Cape Town.

In 1991, he moved to Graskop, where he continued full time sculpting and he opened his own foundry. He moved back to Pretoria in 1992, to continue sculpting and established Art Cast Foundry. In the same year he was commissioned to do several decorative works for the Palace of Sun City, that includes, all the doors bronze handles. Sculptors that he did castings for are to name but a few, the late Bobby Lawrence, Niko van Rensberg, Maureen Quinn, Anton Smit, Andre Prinsloo, Barry Jackson and his Own work.

During all these years, his works was exhibited in galleries in Cape Town Pretoria Johannesburg and in Namibia. His works are in private collections and Public commissions, and can be seen at the SANRAL building in Midrand, Johannesburg, and the Atlas sculpture on the Hohenzollern Building in Swakopmund, Namibia.

In 1997 he entered the world of film making in the art of special effects.  In 1999 Millennium Films  invited him to Bulgaria  as Special Effects Supervisor. He worked on more than 72 Hollywood productions. He worked with  Hollywood actors like Morgan Freeman,  Hillary Swank, Jean Claude van Dame, Sylverstar Stalone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, Bruce Willis, to name but a few.

He moved back to SouthAfrica in 2006 and became Production Designer and Supervising Art Director on international productions.

In 2014, he was nominated for the SAFTA Award for Best Production Designer.

In 2016 he retired from the film industry and started sculpting full time again. His latest works are now in private collections in South Africa, United Arab Emirates,  The Netherlands United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden Australia, USA and Bulgaria.

In 2021, Willem moved to Sofia, Bulgaria, where continues his sculpting career.