Business, union and community leaders in South Africa have joined the government in launching a major job-creation programme.

The participants at a job summit held north of Johannesburg signed a ninety-four pagedeclaration outlining measures aimed at tackling South Africa's thirty-three percent unemployment.

They include a project to build one-hundred-and-fifty-thousand houses for low-income families in the next three years, a buy South African campaign and customs controls to block the flow of illegal imports.

The programme also includes an expansion of government job-creation schemes and a social plan aimed at avoiding job losses when possible.

The BBC correspondent in South Africa says many of the country's unemployed have yet to see the material benefits they had hoped would follow the transition to democracy.