Sector education and training authorities (Setas) have not failed and are expected to be more successful following consolidation in the system, Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande said on Tuesday.

"I think it would be incorrect to say that Setas have generally failed," he told a media briefing to announce the new Seta "landscape".

Everybody accepted there had been unevenness, but overall, "we could have made a much better impact", he said.

This did not mean the weaknesses that had been there in some of the Setas should be overlooked.

"But, actually, it's been the weakness of the system, the education and training system in the first instance," Nzimande said.

The anomaly of locating the skills development instruments in one department and the formal education and training institutions in another department had been the single biggest problem.

This was now being addressed by bringing these together into one department - the higher education and training department.

For instance, one would find that in the skills development area there were surplus funds, but huge shortages in terms of supporting programmes in further education and training (FET) colleges.

"That's been a huge anomaly, which now we are in a better position to address, as a country, for the first time.

"And I want to say let's see what happens after five years. I'm quite confident that we are actually going to make a much bigger impact... because we now stand a better chance of having synergies in the education and training system," he said.

The big challenge was to get a better and closer alignment between Setas and, especially public FETs and universities of technology.

But, much more critically, facilitating young people to get workplace experience.

Nzimande announced that for the next five year period - April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2016 - 12 Setas would be re-established with no change.

Six Setas would be re-established with minimal standard industrial classification (SIC) code transfers, two would receive sub-sectors from another Seta, and three would be abolished and replaced through amalgamations.