"This says that South Africans have a sense of humour," said Nando's marketing manager Sylvester Chauke.

"And it is quite important that we can laugh at ourselves."

The R85 000 bid was not too bad, considering that Nando's had said it believed it would receive "at least R5 for him".

"There was the odd bid for R6," said Chauke.

"So far, we have received about 100 bids. Some were for R100, R1000, R40 000 or R10 000. The highest so far is R85 000," he said, declining to reveal who had made that bid.

But Chauke added: "We know that [opposition leader] Helen Zille really wanted it [the puppet] desperately.

"We also had some international bids come through."

Chauke said it had cost about R30 000 to create the hand-crafted radio-controlled ventriloquist dummy, the star of a recent television advertisement.

"Puppet making can be quite complex," said Chauke.

He said Nando's had not heard from the ANC Youth League president since it announced that his puppet would be auctioned for a charity group that funds, among other things, courses in woodwork, the subject Malema notoriously scored a GG for in matric, according to reports.

"From what I gather, he is very busy at the moment," said Chauke.

Bidding in the auction through The Star newspaper ends at midnight on Wednesday.

In a campaign that has secured Nando's maximum media coverage, the puppet first starred in an advert mocking the ANC Youth League leader's "demand for change".

"You order a quarter peri-peri chicken with chips and a cooldrink for R33.95," said the puppet.

"You pay with R40, you get R6.05 change, but if you pay with R100, you get R66.05 change. That's more change than you paid for the meal in the first place."

The ANCYL then threatened "militant action" if Nando's did not pull the advert. The chicken outlet, known for its risqué advertising campaigns, responded by reflighting the ad with the face of "Julius" blurred and his voice distorted. It also featured a running strip at the bottom of the screen, declaring that the picture and sound had been masked to protect innocent parties.

Sapa

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