They're all over social media, popping up in replies on Twitter and in the comments section on Facebook. The people behind the purple cow have a plan for South Africa and it is disruptive and as audacious as it is innovative.

Kanthan Pillay is the founder of the ZACP (Capitalist Party of South Africa), a new political party vying for seats in the legislature in the upcoming general election. 

In an interview with News24 on Friday, Pillay called the current crop of parliamentarians "unemployable oxygen thieves". He also detailed why his party thought it was important for high school students to get free gun training and why capitalism shouldn't be seen as a dirty word.

The logo of the party itself is the first giveaway of its ideological orientation. According to Pillay, purple is the ''colour of prosperity'' while the cow is meant to denote Southern Africa's tradition of seeing cattle as wealth. He added that it was also meant to symbolise a ''bull market'' for South Africa.

Asked about the ideological bent of the party, Pillay - a self-described classic liberal - said the party comprised liberals, free-marketeers, libertarians and anarchists before adding ''labels are stupid but we all agree on the 10 principles, that's the most important thing''.

The ZACP believes in liberty, individual rights before group rights, absolute freedom of speech, private property rights, free markets and firearms for self-defence.

The number 10 is a constant throughout. There are 10 principles and 10 people who are, at present, in control of the party. Pillay stated ''we're solving 10 problems with 10 solutions'' that range from cash-in-transit heists to fixing schools.   

Expanding on this, Pillay states that ZACP says ''no to affirmative action'' and the party wants ''complete, blind meritocracy''. He also said the party was strong on property rights and called expropriation without compensation ''legalised theft''.

Emphasising what he referred to as absolute freedom of speech, Pillay said hate speech should not be a crime and that  EFF leader Julius Malema and Penny Sparrow should not have been censured.

Defending capitalism, Pillay noted that ''capitalists make money for this country'' and that ''spaza shops are capitalists, street vendors are capitalists''.

Explaining his party's policy on firearms and self-defence, Pillay stated that ''our laws make it difficult for poor people to get guns'' and ''guns affect poor people'' disproportionately. He continued that in a country ailed by extreme levels of gender-based violence, ''women should be trained in safe use of firearms".

Pillay explained the ZACP's belief that ''free training in firearms in high school for safe firearms use'' is a necessity to address the high levels of crime and violence in the country. In line with this, the ZACP has made use of the #TeachAgirlChildToShoot hashtag across social media.

Asked why a Stanford-educated businessman and other successful individuals from the private sector were planning to venture into the public service, Pillay's answer was simple - ''we got tired of government''.

Pillay said that the ZACP would reduce the salaries of everyone in Parliament by 34%. He added that ''for every R100, R34 is used to pay the public service''.

''By and large, these parliamentarians are unemployable. They're not qualified and get paid so much and the exceptions are Zweli Mkhize who is a medical doctor, Pravin Gordhan who is a pharmacist, Tito Mboweni who did well in the private sector and a few others''.

''They are unemployable oxygen thieves. What job can Julius [Malema] get that will pay a million a year? Mmusi [Maimane] can at least be a preacher,'' he said.

Asked about what he hoped to achieve this election, Pillay responded that ''we want to get 10 people'' in Parliament. When asked about the party's intended constituency, Pillay stated that his party would seek to persuade 500 000 citizens, demotivated by the current state of politics and government, who have abstained from the electoral process to re-engage with the process and vote for the ZACP.

Pillay said that the ZACP would ''treat the country as a startup''. He added that ''you'll keep getting what you're getting if you keep doing what you're doing. We're tired of the past and need to look to the future''.

He added: "It's like driving a car, if we keep looking in the rear view, we'll eventually crash".