Zambia striker Harry Milanzi has been handed a suspended six-month ban by the South Africa Football Association (Safa) for failing a drug test.

Milanzi was also fined US$2,500 after traces of marijuana were recently found in his blood.

But the six month ban has been suspended because Milanzi underwent a rehabilitation programme last December with Zambia's Drug Enforcement Commission.

The suspended ban means that he can continue playing for his South African club Golden Arrows but the sanction would come into force should Milanzi fail another test in the next six months.

Milanzi has admitted that he used to smoke marijuana in the past and that is why he has been undergoing drug rehabilitation.

"My ban has been suspended because in Zambia I'm on a drug rehabilitation programme," Milanzi explained.

"If it weren't for the December documents which I showed to Safa, the punishment could have been more severe."

The Football Association of Zambia (Faz) spokesperson Mwansa Mbulakulima told BBC Sport that Milanzi had confessed to having used marijuana.

"He told us in one of our sensitisation workshops that he used to smoke but that he had stopped," Mbulakulima said.

"This is definitely worrying, as we all know the consequences of using drugs and we don't want to risk our players being banned."

He added that Faz would intensify its sensitisation workshops to avoid the risk of being banned from international football.

Milanzi is not the first Zambian player to be in trouble for using drugs.

In 2001 striker Rotson Kilambe tested positive for cannabis and became the first African player to be banned by football's world governing body, Fifa.

In 2003, Musonda Mweuke, who was the Zambian league's top scorer at the time, was arrested and fined $30 for using marijuana.

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