A league fixture between Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs scheduled for Soweto this weekend has been postponed after South Africa and Pirates captain Senzo Meyiwa was shot dead late Sunday.

"The match will not happen on Saturday out of respect for Senzo. That is the right thing to do," Premier Soccer League chief executive Brand de Villiers told a Johannesburg media conference.

The fixture between the two most successful and popular football clubs in the republic was guaranteed to attract a sell-out 90,000 crowd to the Soccer City stadium in Soweto.

Chiefs top the championship table with 25 points after nine matches and Pirates lie sixth, 11 points behind.

Goalkeeper Meyiwa was gunned down 30 kilometres south of Johannesburg at the home of his pop star girlfriend Kelly Khumalo after an altercation that stunned the crime-weary nation.

He also skippered Pirates, who won the premier African club championship in 1995 and were runners-up last year.