New party proud to support capitallism
LESS than two months before election day, a new political party has emerged, sporting a purple cow logo which represents wealth and prosperity.
The ZACP, or Capitalist Party of South Africa, was founded by 10 “positive disruptors” who say the “future is too important to be left to those seeking power”.
Founding members include Professor Kanthan Pillay, legal consultant Roman Cabanac, software engineer Neo Kuaho, economics graduate and qualified airline captain Gideon Joubert, businesswoman Unathi Kwaza, TechCentral founder Duncan McLeod, aspiring economist Sindile Vabaza, consumer champion Louis Nel, entrepreneur Katlego Mabusela and business science master’s graduate Dumo Denga.
The party members said they were not politicians, but could offer practical solutions to the country’s problems. They said innovation was central to their approach.
At the party launch in Johannesburg on Sunday, Pillay said its logo represented wealth and prosperity: “Cattle are the most visible symbol of wealth for all of sub-Saharan Africa. Purple is the colour of prosperity.
“And in the words of (author and business executive) Seth Godin, ‘the only way to cut the hyper-clutter of products and advertising today is to innovate something new, unique and remarkable – like a purple cow’.”
Nathan spoke of children drowning in “s***” and said it was time to put an end to the tyranny of incompetence.
“I’m a father with daughters; my youngest is 3 years old, and when I look at this picture, I see my children with their lives ahead of them cut short by the collective incompetence of the 400 people we have sent to Parliament.”
He said it was time to fix the problem and the only way was to say, “get out of the way, we’ve got this”.
He described the party members as capitalists.
Pillay said politicians had turned capitalism into a swear word and made people feel guilty for working hard to improve their lives.
“And this guilt allows us to let them steal money from hard-working families and use the money for corruption.
“We are turning that around. We are saying that if you are a taxpayer, if you employ someone and pay them or if you provide a service which people pay for, you are a capitalist and you should be proud of what you do to grow our country.”
He said the party stood for 10 core principles, among them private property rights, rule of law, the right to work, free markets and international free trade, firearms for self-defence and fraternity.
Pillay said the ZACP was the only party that refused to be held prisoner by the past and knew how to shape the future.
“There are enough people among our voters who share these beliefs. They are the 7 million people who were registered for the 2014 elections and simply did not go to the polls because there was no one who spoke to those beliefs.”
He said 34% of taxes went to the public service wage bill.
The first piece of legislation the party planned to table in Parliament was to call for a 34% reduction in salaries across the board for all members of Parliament, ministers and the president.