Beryl Verna Botman was born in the southern suburbs of Cape Town and has since lived in several other parts of the metropole and Stellenbosch. She attended Square Hill Primary School, Diep River Ad Hoc School and Crestway Secondary School during the late sixties and seventies. After school, Botman attended the University of Cape Town where she obtained a BA, Higher Diploma in Education and BEd (Hon). After completing her qualification in education, she was a teacher of Afrikaans first and second language at Lavender Hill Secondary School during the 1980s and 1990s.

In 1995, the University of the Western Cape conferred the degree of master’s in education on her and in 1996 she began her work in the rural Western Cape as deputy chief education specialist, first as subject and curriculum adviser and, later, as curriculum planner with the Western Cape Education Department.
After leaving the employ of the WCED, Botman ventured into life coaching and seminar facilitation. In 2014 she graduated with a PhD in philosophy of education, and education policy studies from Stellenbosch University, after which she worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at Free State University. Botman currently serves on the Wine Industry Training and Development Advisory Committee.

Beryl is the widow of Russel Botman, mother of Ilse and Roxanne, stepmother of Hayman and Lizelle and step grandmother of Byron, Jayden and Haylen. She is also the chairperson of the Russel Botman Bursary Fund. As chairperson, she is responsible for calling and chairing committee meetings, as well as liaising with all relevant departments at Stellenbosch University. She also interacts with the bursary recipients along with the other committee members. Furthermore, Beryl is an invited additional member of the Russel Botman Memorial Lecture Committee. She also collected and donated the personal documents of Prof Botman to the Beyers Naude Centre for Public Theology to be archived.