South African football legend Jomo Sono believes it was not the right decision to cancel the Bafana Bafana friendlies because of xenophobia.
Bafana's friendly match that was supposed to take place last Saturday had to be cancelled after opponents Zambia and Madagascar pulled out due to the recent xenophobic attacks in Gauteng.
Sono, who has brought many foreign players to the country, says even though the attacks are very worrying, it was wrong to cancel the friendlies as it shows defeat.
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"I understand the feeling of Zambia and Madagascar but I think by us cancelling the games, we are giving these crooks a strong voice," Sono tells snl24.com/kickoff.
"Because as [Nelson] Mandela had said, sport can unite everybody
:I think if the games took place it would show these crooks that there is no room for xenophobia in football. But we understand their plight [Zambia and Madagascar], we hope it will be solved quickly. We hope that [Minister of Police] Bheki Cele and the soldiers will take action against these people.
"I think the football fraternity should stand up and be counted, and say away with xenophobia. It should not be tolerated. We are all Africans, and in football we have so many African players in this country. There are so many African players that have become top goalscorers, player of the year... in this country. So we cannot be sitting and keeping quiet when their brothers and sisters are perishing in the country.
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"I feel football should take a strong stand against those people because you can see it's not South Africans, it's people taking advantage of the situation to steal food... so the perpetrators should be brought to book."
The Jomo Cosmos owner says most people don't understand how much having foreigners in the country helps the economy.
"All the countries in the world whose economies are growing, all countries in the world they've got foreigners coming in to work. America, China, Japan... they have foreigners in their country. Look now all the stores are closed. Competition in business and in sport is good."
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Asked how much are the foreign players are affected by this, Sono empathised.
"Obviously they don't talk ngoba nabo beze nge span la [because they are here to work] but you can see it's affecting them. They are here to work, they've got work permits. It's also affecting us walking on the street. You are worried about your children at school, you are worried about this... the whole country now we are also scared now because we don't know what reaction will the foreigners do.
"We don't know... the whole country is in fear. So I think it needs to stop immediately. It affects football because it was not a FIFA weekend, PSL would have continued. Hence I say we shouldn't allow these people to have an upper hand. We would have played ja. And we would have fielded the foreign players."