Jeremy Vine at the conference: Talking does not create jobs

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 94-page declaration outlining measures aimed at tackling South Africa's 33% unemployment rate.

With a recession predicted, Nelson Mandela's administration is under pressure to deliver on jobs with many black South Africans getting poorer.

Job plans

The government said it would create jobs by:

• aggressively promoting tourism

• introducing a "Buy South African" campaign

• building 150,000 houses for low-income families in the next three years

• expanding government job-creation schemes

• strengthening the customs service to block the flow of illegal imports

• clinching quick trade deals with other countries and trading blocks

It also said it would seek to avoid job losses where possible.

BBC Africa Correspondent Jeremy Vine says many of the country's unemployed have yet to see the material benefits they had hoped would follow the transition to democracy.

He said it is almost as if the South African government has decided it will throw every policy it can think of at unemployment in recognition of the size of the problem.