JOHANNESBURG, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- South Africa may lose more jobs, President Jacob Zuma said in Pretoria on Thursday.

    "We may still lose more jobs before we turn the corner on job creation. Nearly a million people have been cut loose by the crisis and many of them have families that depend on them," Zuma told a media briefing following the report by the leadership group of the framework response to the economic crisis.

    However, he said at the end of the second quarter of 2009, the government's expanded public works program had created 223,568 verified work opportunities.

    Addressing the briefing, Minister of Public Works Geoff Doidge said public works had created 89,000 verified work opportunities in the first quarter of 2009.

    "The quarter straddled an election and there was a setting up of new administrations," he said.

    He confirmed that over 200,000 jobs had been created by public works in the second quarter of the year.

    "By November 15 we calculated that 330,000 jobs had been created but this is subject to verification," Doidge said.