Dali Mpofu.
South Africa is moving in the wrong direction, advocate Dali Mpofu said on Friday.
"We have adopted a neo-liberal approach that is not going to get us anywhere," he told an Economic Freedom Fighters professionals seminar in Midrand.
Mpofu said he agreed with the ANC about the diagnosis of the problem – which was unemployment, poverty and inequality. However, they had different solutions.
"If you going to try create, within a neo-liberal paradigm, full employment, you are just wasting your time, because the system you are practising is designed to create unemployment."
He criticised the National Development Plan, calling it a "sell-out document".
"You are told 'no, no, no it's fine, we know there are problems, but you know what wait until 2030', in 17 years time, just to scratch the surface, and then maybe in 2031 they say 'no, no, no this was not the right thing' and they give you another one."
Crisis in the country
Mpofu said the catch was that by 2030 when people realised the NDP did not work, those who adopted it would be long gone.
"They will be in their big houses and big cars and they'll just say sorry from their bunkers and other places," he said.
Mpofu gave the seminar two examples of what he claimed illustrated the crisis in the country.
In 1994 the country was told that by 2014, 30% of the land would have been redistributed.
He said even if that happened the process of redistribution would have been too slow but it had not even happened.
"If in 20 years you have 30% and in 2054 you have 60% then in 2074, I just lose it.
"When I did the calculation I realised that by the time we are at 100% redistribution, I will be 100 years old, in other word I won't be here."
Share in the economy
Mpofu said "economic freedom in our lifetime" was just not occurring.
His second example was about the share in the economy.
The NDP said the lowest 40% of people in South Africa had about a 6% share in the economy. However the plan was only pushing for an increase to 10% by 2030.
"You must toil for the next 17 years, not even to double the share… We are working with our eyes open towards a situation of continuous deprivation for our people," Mpofu said.
"How can we buy into that kind of document."
Talking about the EFF's seven pillars, Mpofu said it was concerning that state agencies were being used to settle political scores.
"We need open and accountable governance without fear on the part of citizens that state resources or state agencies will be used against them."
Political scores
Earlier this month, Mpofu announced that he was leaving the ANC to join Julius Malema's EFF.
On Friday, he said when he made the announcement he expected to be insulted but he received more messages of support.
However, there was a "chilling fact".
"The most chilling fact was when I got all these tweets and SMSes and people were saying 'well done, you are very brave'.
"What scared me was the last sentence. After saying you are brave they say 'just makes sure that your tax affairs are ok'," he said to loud applause.
Mpofu said he did not want to live in a country where the general belief among people was that state agencies were going to be used to settle political scores. – Sapa