Sam, who set the target in February,  was amongst a host of sports bosses, politicians and fans who welcomed back South Africa’s athletes from the World Athletics Championships in Berlin.

South Africa claimed three medals - two gold, one each for 800 metres runners Caster Semenya and Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, and one silver for long jumper Khotso Mokoena.

Sam said: "These three medals are three more than we won in both Osaka and Helsinki at the last World Championships.

"This is proof we remain committed to continued improvement and our goal of 12 medals in 2012."

South Africa last won medals at the 2003 Championships in Paris, where they took four medals, two of them gold from high-jumpers Jacques Freitag and Hestrie Cloete.

Sam said: "We are under no illusion as to the task at hand and that is why we are constantly evaluating our athletes in all codes around the world, as well as looking at the various coaches and coaching structures, a vital cog in our medals quest.

"Our swimmers came back from the World Swimming Championships in Rome last month with four medals.

"So as you can see it's a constantly evolving process."

South Africa's medallists in Rome were Cameron van der Burgh won gold and bronze medals while Gerhard Zandberg and Chad Ho each won a bronze.

South Africa won only one medal in the Chinese capital, Mokoena finishing second in the long jump.

A Lottery grant of R400 million (£27.5 million) is bankrolling South Africa's preparations for London 2012.

Since returning to the Olympics in 1992 after a 32-year absence of the country's apartheid regime, South Africa has won 19 medals, four of which have been gold.

SASCOC High Performance general manager Ezera Tshabangu said that a plan will now be drawn up for London 2012, including events like the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2011 All Africa Games and other World Championships in a number of sports.

Funding would be targeted towards achieving success at these events but London 2012 remained the priority.

Tshabangu said: "The meetings with athletes and their coaches have been a real eye opener in terms of what is really happening on the ground.

"We tend to assume a lot in terms of their needs.

"The new process and way of doing things will go a long way and I believe we can only get better from here.

"It is now up to the athletes and coaches to deliver.

"However, we know that the systems need to be there in order for us to support them.

"This is what we are tying up right now.

"We are also doing an analysis of the other sports codes on the Olympic/ Paralympic programme, including team sports since some of them may make the criteria for inclusion on the programme."