COSAFA has condemned the xenophobic attacks in South Africa but stressed that the 2015 COSAFA Castle Cup to be held there will go ahead as scheduled next month.
South Africa has been hit by a wave of attacks against African migrants by locals over the last week.
COSAFA president Suketu Patel described the attacks as shameful.
“COSAFA is a zone of multicultural backgrounds and we fully condemn the shameful xenophobia we are seeing in South Africa. However, we stand firmly behind SAFA at this time and are looking forward to the COSAFA Cup 2015 as an opportunity for all countries in the region to come together in peace,” Patel said.
South Africa will host the 2015 COSAFA Cup in the North West Province from May 17-30.
COSAFA stated that they have been given reassurances by the provisional government that the host region has not been affected by the attacks but that they remain vigilant over the matter.
Defending COSAFA Cup champions Zambia will enter the competition at the quarterfinal stage on May 27 after they were handed a preliminary round bye.
Zambia will face winner from Group A comprising of Namibia, The Seychelles, Mauritius and joint four-time champions Zimbabwe.
Lets hope these lads will have improved in their retarded reasoning. Best wishes in the tournament Zambia.
Time will tell whether governments of the countries participating will allow their teams to travel and participate.
If the xenophobic attacks haven’t stopped by then, then it won’t be wise to host the tournament in that country seeing the lives of travelling supporters will be in jeopardy.
I too.. am not comfortable with South Africa hosting the tournament why not transfer it to the defending champions to host.
Why not host it in Durban so we can watch 2 types of sport football and hunting us Africans
The tournament should be cancelled or hosted somewhere else unless the South African government acts decisively against these brutal killings. S.A should be shown that they are not above the law!
This is now a chance to respond to xenophobia by not participating. Let them play on their own with their King Goodwill Zwelithini or is it Badwill Zwelithini the descendant of Shaka the Zulu.
Let Zambia honor those who have been killed by South African animals by not participating. otherwise we’ll be called f o o l s by disrespecting the blood of the innocent.
Take the tournament to Angola or Namibia, we feel safer there, or postpone to next year. How can teams play freely as foreigners under death threats? And supporters, how can they watch freely and enjoy the games? Not many “foreign blacks” will travel to watch anyway, so the tournament is already a flop in the making.
Postponement? A big NOOOOOOOO!!
Take it to another country? YEEESSS!!
Why? NEVER REWARD BAD and CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR. Let the South Africans reorganise themselves first. Just as we stayed away from Apartheid South Africa until a civilised system was restored, we should stay away from a xenophobic South Africa until civilised behaviour is restored. Let the message be loud and clear. We survived without South Africa during Apartheid and so shall we survive without a xenophobic South Africa. Let Zwelinthini and others apologise for their unfortunate statements.