ANC demands new Caster sex tests
By Mike Hurst
From: The Daily Telegraph
Mon Oct 19 00:01:00 EST 2009 Mon Oct 19 00:01:00 EST 2009
SOUTH Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), is demanding the International Association of Athletics Federations "nullify and void’’ results of sex tests conducted on women’s 800m world champion Caster Semenya.
The political party has made the demand after their own "investigation’’ into the furore surrounding the 18-year-old - who has been revealed to be a hermaphrodite, or intersexual.
The ANC’s investigation found that sex tests carried out on Semenya in Pretoria on August 7 - the existence of which South Africa president Leonard Chuene admitted lying about - were allegedly not conducted in keeping with IAAF policies.
"We (have) decided to request a meeting with the IAAF in which we plan to advise them to declare the tests null and void,’’ ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said.
He said the IAAF’s policy required that an athlete or team should raise a challenge or complaint for tests to be conducted and there was no complaint.
However, several of Semenya’s 800m rivals complained about the teenager, including fellow finalists Elisa Cusma Piccione of Italy, who called her "a man’’ and Russia’s Mariya Savinova who agreed , saying in Berlin: "Just look at her’’.
In fact, suspicions had been raised a month earlier when the then-unknown Semenya, 18, surged from simply being a good club runner to world leader in the African junior championships in Mauritius.
The extra hormones produced by her condition, which The Daily Telegraph revealed on September 11, would give her an advantage over "normal’’ female athletes.
The ANC has also demanded that the voiding of the tests - which would thereby free Semenya to continue competing in women-only events - should be accompanied by a public apology to the South African nation by IAAF president Lamine Diack.
"I don’t think this was a mistake by the IAAF,’’ Mthemby accused, with bitter irony. "The country is being undermined. Had we been a developed country her testing would not have been handled this way.’’
Semenya said she remains untroubled by the controversy and she will sit her university sports science exams this week.
The ANC’s lack of impartiality was revealed when Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, also part of the ANC investigation, declared on August 25: "They can stuff their insults. This is our little girl and nobody is going to perform any test on her.’’