A puppet resembling ANC Youth League president Julius Malema has brought in big bucks, fetching R100 000 on Thursday after an SMS auction held by Nando’s.
The auction, which had been running for less than a week, came to a close when Johannesburg businessman Ryan Lotter out-bid almost 700 local and international participants.
Lotter, the managing director of Colorpress — said he was considering giving his new acquisition to DA leader Helen Zille. She had earlier described Malema as ‘one of the DA’s biggest vote-catchers”.
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 ANC Youth League (ANCYL) called the campaign ‘disgusting” and demanded its immediate canning. The ANCYL threatened to “mobilise the people of South Africa to take militant action against Nando’s” and anything associated with the franchise. Nando’s responded by blurring the face of the puppet but continuined to air the ad.
The money generated by the auction will go to the Self-Help Development Organisation, which empowers young men by enabling them to finish matric and learn mechanics, electrical engineering and woodwork skills.
The charity’s Jimmy Mahlangu said it had opened in 1996 with the aim of assisting young men who had ended up on the street by “stopping them from doing crime”.