President Jacob Zuma tried yesterday to convince Cosatu's central committee meeting that his government was on track in implementing polices adopted at the ANC conference in 2007.

Zuma spoke about policies that had been criticised by the labour federation and would form part of general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi's report to be delivered today.

The report raises dissatisfaction on issues such as land reform, corruption, job creation and implementation of the new growth path. Zuma highlighted several successes to about 900 delegates yesterday, saying his government had singled out job creation as a necessity based on an economic resolution of Polokwane which called for the creation of decent work.

"We lost over a million jobs due to the recent economic downturn. The economy is recovering but not in the manner that will enable us to quickly regain lost jobs or quickly create scores of new ones," Zuma said.

Though Cosatu felt government was not doing enough on job creation, Zuma said that, through Nedlac, ongoing discussions were helping to speed up the process and making changes where necessary.

"Already, some progress is being made. For example, the jobs fund has been launched and is housed at the Development Bank of Southern Africa. The fund will aim to operate as a catalyst for innovation and investment in activities which directly contribute longterm employment creation," Zuma said.

He admitted that the issue of labour brokering had not been fully resolved and that, as government, the matter was being discussed with social partners regarding amendments to labour legislation.

Zuma said this after Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini had demanded that labour brokering should be scrapped completely.

On corruption, Zuma reiterated last year's ANC national general council's hard-line stance on fighting corruption. He said the government had instituted several investigations through the Special Investigating Unit to probe alleged corruption or maladministration in all spheres of government.

Cosatu has announced that it would launch its Corruption Watch in December and millions of rands have been set aside to run the unit.

Another issue that was causing difference between the ANC and its alliance partners was the slow process of land redistribution.

But Zuma and his deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe, warned that land redistribution should be dealt with in accordance with South Africa's constitution.