Bafana Bafana‘s friendly against Madagascar this Saturday has been called off after the African island nation decided to withdraw from the encounter.

Bafana were originally set to face Zambia in Lusaka as part of their warm-up fixtures before crucial their AFCON qualifiers in November but the match was cancelled on Tuesday when Zambia withdrew citing xenophobic violence in South Africa.

The South African Football Association (SAFA) hastily arranged a replacement in the form of Madagascar and even announced free entry for supporters attending the fixture at Orlando Stadium in Soweto.

SAFA also confirmed the cancellation on their official twitter account this afternoon.