Mr SA CEO Rudi Baker said yesterday that once broadcasters came on board - he expects a decision within two weeks - the Mr SA 2013 competition would be "on a par" with the Miss SA pageant.

Mzansi Magic launched Road to Miss SA last year and thousands of lasses nationwide auditioned and submitted to a grilling by the judges about this country's geography, history and politics. Some were shown to be less than ideal aspirant beauty queens.

Baker said Mr SA boasts popular TV presenter Michael Mol, former Egoli actor Marcus Muller and former Pasella presenter Dieter Voigt as previous winners.

Baker said: "Our aim is to be even bigger than Miss SA and I think, once it is on TV, it will definitely be at least on a par and we would really like him [the winner] to be a true ambassador for this country.

"Though Miss SA is an ambassador, I think it's still very much about beauty. We are going more for an ambassador ... someone aspirational."

Negotiations with "big" sponsors were under way, said Baker, and Denim, True Religion and ExecuTravel were already on board.

Yesterday Road to Miss SA host and 2002 second runner-up Bridget Masinga said preparations for this year's pageant were well under way.

In about three weeks, Mzansi Magic and Sun International begin looking for the successor to current queen Melinda Bam.

Baker added: "We're looking for the model male and not the male model.

"In the past, Mr SA has gone off the radar and you only saw him once he had been announced. So we will have a few audition rounds and then, once we get to the semi-finalists, the public will start voting. It will be a mixture of Idols, Top Billing and Bar One Man Hunt."

The current Mr SA is Andrew Govender.