New South African President Jacob Zuma has promised to create half a million jobs this year in his first state of the nation address.
He said fighting poverty was his priority, a week after South Africa officially announced it was facing its worst recession in 17 years.
"We must act now to minimise the impact of this downturn on those most vulnerable," he said in Cape Town.
But he also told parliament the government had to spend wisely.
Mandela cheers
The BBC's Karen Allen in Cape Town says Mr Zuma, in power for less than a month, has had to perform a delicate balancing act to appease his unions allies, currently staging strike action, and avoid scaring off investors.
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"Between now and December 2009, we plan to create about 500,000 job opportunities," he told MPs.
He promised his government would create a further four million jobs by 2014, but did not explain how.
Mr Zuma also:
• announced an annual national holiday, Mandela Day, on 18 July, prompting cheers from the audience and a wave from the watching anti-apartheid icon himself
• promised to deliver "the best World Cup ever" when South Africa hosts the football tournament in June 2010
• promised to provide anti-retroviral HIV drugs for 80% of those in need by 2011, as part of efforts to halve the rate of new HIV infections within that period
• stuck by pledges to cut violent crime by between 7%-10% a year (in a country where 50 people are killed every day)
Mr Zuma, whose African National Congress Party (ANC) swept into power in April elections on the back of strong support from unions and the poor, cautioned against expectations of a quick fix to the financial slump.
"The economic downturn will affect the pace at which our country is able to address the social and economic challenges it faces. But it will not alter the direction of our development," he said.
 Ninety-year-old Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela was in the audience |
Fifteen years after the end of apartheid, about 40% of South Africans live in poverty - more than half of that number surviving on less than one dollar a day, according to government data.
Its economy shrunk by 6.4% during the first quarter of this year and almost one in four South Africans is unemployed.
Mr Zuma said a three-year 787bn rand ($98bn; £60bn) spending programme announced in this year's budget - and including funds for schools, transport, housing and sanitation - must be properly planned.
"In the face of the economic downturn, we will have to act prudently - no wastage, no rollovers of funds - every cent must be spent wisely and fruitfully," he said.
