Cosatu claims to have 1.8 million members

Overall support was patchy, with mines and the textile industry most affected.

Jobs in these sectors have been lost through the strengthening of the South African currency, and by cheap clothing imports from China.

The main demonstrations were in Johannesburg, and in Cape Town, where strikers took a petition to parliament.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), which called the strike, claimed an overwhelming response to the strike, but the Chamber of Business said only 10% of workers were striking.

'Joblessness and despair'

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi told demonstrators in Johannesburg there would be more protests in coming months unless government and business acted to stop job losses.

POVERTY AND JOBS Unemployment officially 26% Informal sector accounts for large number of jobs Economic growth 5% 50% below poverty line The ANC-union dispute

"We cannot afford to let our lives go by in poverty, joblessness and despair," he said.

"We must use this process of rolling mass action to tell the bosses and our own political leaders that much more must be done to address the crisis of jobs and poverty."

Chamber of Mines negotiator Frans Barker said the strike would not help the situation

"It is a bit problematic to destroy production for a day... to protest about job losses, because it's just going to make the position of the industry worse," he told Reuters news agency.

Most mineworkers at the country's largest gold mining concern, AngloGold Ashanti, stayed away from work. However, another mining group, Goldfield, said most of its employees were working.

Volkswagen South Africa said a significant number had failed to show up to work and its factories were running partial production.

Official figures suggest a quarter of all South Africans are unemployed, but some analysts put the figure at up to 40%.

The African National Congress (ANC) is still in a formal alliance with the unions and the Communist Party, but rifts have been appearing for several years.