Cabinet ministers were preparing to be sworn in on Monday with many of them about to take control of government departments for the first time.

Second Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane has insisted he would do his job honestly and fairly.

Chabane admitted his task would not be easy saying: "I am acting on behalf of the President carrying the mandate of the President to do a particular job. Therefore we'll have to do the job as honestly as we can."

Incoming Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele was aware he had a lot of work to do in ensuring a world class transport system ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

"The main thing is to prepare for 2010, which is already on top of us and the test of any country is its transport system. To be given this responsibility, at this time, is actually very humbling," Ndebele said.

Zuma defends Mashabane

Meanwhile, President Jacob Zuma defended his decision to put a provincial politician and former diplomat in charge of the renamed Department of International Relations and Cooperation.

He said the new label better described the work of the old Foreign Affairs Department and insisted Maite Nkoane Mashabane was the best woman to lead it.

Diplomats remained studiously quiet about Maite Nkoane Mashabane's promotion but Zuma was not.

"This is a cadre of the movement a leader of the ANC who has been in the province has been in the NEC for quite a while and the ANC knows the strengths of this particular comrade and her work in international affairs," praised Zuma.

The new minister was remembered for spending much of her time as High Commissioner to India on confinement in South Africa.

She returned to become Limpopo's MEC for Local Government and Housing but she was better remembered as the supportive wife of the late Norman Mashabane, sacked as Ambassador to Jakarta after being found guilty of multiple charges of sexual harassment.