The Congress of the People wants to overhaul the South African economy by boosting local production in a bid to create jobs, the party said as it unveiled its draft policy document on Tuesday.

COPE's policy chief Smuts Ngonyama accused the government of having lost the plot on the economy by allowing industrial and agricultural production to slip.

He said the sharp increase in imports in recent years, in areas ranging from footwear to food, "simply means that we have been exporting production".

It not only cost jobs but raised the spectre of a loss of skills and food security, he added.

"We cannot build this nation and make it formidable if we don't deal with the question of unemployment, production and education," Ngonyama said.

He said COPE was shocked by the fact that only 1.5 percent of African learners were passing higher grade mathematics and was considering a call for schooling to be compulsory up to the age of 16.

"If the majority of the people cannot participate meaningfully in the economy than production is going to suffer."

Ngonyama said the fledgling party was in favour of increased state spending, both as a way of coping with the global economic meltdown and of giving South Africans better health care and social security.

He said it wanted to step up the fight against HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis and to tackle crime by building a stronger, more professional police force so that "all South Africans can live in safety."

But on the crisis in Zimbabwe, the new party showed little sign of taking a different line to the government, despite a call from senior member Phillip Dexter last week for President Robert Mugabe to be replaced.

Ngonyama said COPE believed powersharing negotiations remained the way forward.

"We have seen what the use of hard power means. Many people die in the process," he said.

COPE will unveil its final policy manifesto at its inaugural launch in Bloemfontein, which gets underway at the weekend.