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South Africa's education minister will not be seeking long-term British aid for his country's hard-pressed universities when he meets Gillian Shephard, Secretary of State for Education and Employment, next week.

Although South Africa is drawing extensively on international aid programmes to kick-start the process of transforming its education system after years of apartheid, it is setting its face firmly against indefinite reliance on overseas aid.

Sibusio Bengu, (pictured here on the right with Commonwealth secretary general Chief Emeka Anyaoku), this week told a meeting organised by the Council for Education in the Commonwealth: "We are determined that we shall not conduct our international relations on the basis of foreign aid or its instruments, much as we appreciate the valuable assistance which we have negotiated with bilateral and multilateral partners."