Hugo Broos' side suffered a steep learning curve in a 5-0 drubbing against world champions France in an international friendly on Tuesday.
"We actually learned a lot from these two fixtures, especially against France," Johnson tells KickOff.
"But the reality is we need 10 years or so to get to where we want to be.
"Even with the size, our players are too small compared to giants like Giroud and the rest of them.
"We need proper development in the country, at the moment I don't even think school football still exists in our schools.
"I don't understand why we don't learn from rugby and cricket and all these other sports and introduce football at schools.
'Where are we supposed to find players when there is no proper development and school football?
"Yes PSL clubs do have some academies but even there, the players are too small.
"In the past, we used to have big strong players, so it must start down there in the development structures, we need big players.
"We were playing against world-class players, and we only have one player playing overseas.
'The reality is we need to have more players playing overseas, and at the moment it's not promising."
Johnson also hit back at critics who voiced their displeasure with Bafana players asking their French counterparts for photos and shirts after the match.
"People should stop being jealous, who wouldn't want to take a photo with these world-class players?
"These boys are playing in the PSL, it's not every day they get to be on the same pitch with such stars, I also took a pic with these stars."
"Kylian Mbappe was so impressed with Ronwen and he ended up giving him his jersey.
"Giroud said to Ronwen, if it wasn't for you we could have scored a lot of goals today."