Semenya saga: management

Members Area In the News
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Caster Semenya row continues as Lamine Diack cancels South Africa trip

• IAAF president may take meeting to neutral ground

• ANC renew demand for an apology from Diack

Owen Gibson
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 21 October 2009 20.18 BST

Lamine Diack, the president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, has cancelled a planned trip to South Africa to discuss the results of Caster Semenya’s gender verification test with the athlete and government representatives.

The IAAF president had made plans to meet with the South African government this weekend amid continued claim and counter-claim over the controversy surrounding the athlete’s gender that followed her 800m victory at the World Championships in Berlin in August.

Diack will instead travel to a sports industry conference in the Russian city of Kazan. It is understood that he has not ruled out travelling to South Africa next month and still hopes to sit down with Semenya and her representatives to reach some conclusions before the IAAF Council meets in Monaco on 20 November.

The ANC, the ruling party in South Africa, earlier this week renewed its demands for an apology from Diack while a committee set up to look into the affair said the IAAF results should be declared “null and void” because it had not followed its own procedures.

“The country is being undermined. Our view is that if Caster was an athlete from a developed country, we would not be where we are,” said an ANC spokesman earlier this week.

IAAF insiders had hoped the admission from Leonard Chuene, the president of Athletics South Africa, that he had lied about whether a gender test had been carried out on Semenya prior to the Championships in Berlin would help quell the febrile atmosphere in the country. But the fault lines have been redrawn in recent days. Chuene, who in the immediate aftermath of the issue becoming headline news around the world accused the IAAF of “racism, pure and simple”, has retained the support of the South African sports minister. Some South African officials have insisted that Diack be forced to apologise before entering the country.

Diack has vowed to disregard the latest wave of criticism as he seeks to find a way forward. One option being discussed is the possibility of brokering a meeting with government officials representing Semenya on neutral ground.

That could see IAAF and the South African government each nominating members for a panel of experts that could gather in another African city, such as Dakar in Diack’s native Senegal, to examine the available evidence and discuss a way forward.

The IAAF has yet to see the results of any tests carried out by Athletics South Africa or make public the results of its own tests. Leaked reports have repeatedly suggested that they show Semenya has levels of testosterone three times higher than normal. IAAF insiders insist that the welfare of the athlete remains their paramount concern.

It is understood to be highly unlikely that Semenya, who is supposed to be sitting sports science exams at the University of Pretoria, will be stripped of her gold medal. An IAAF meeting in November will discuss plans for a wholesale review of its guidelines on gender verification, which were last updated in 2003

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THIS STORY LINKS TO A PDF CONTAINING FIVE A4-SIZE PAGES OF THE CONFIDENTIAL REPORT SUBMITTED BY DR HAROLD ADAMS TO SACOC IN THE INQUIRY INTO THE CASTER SEMENYA FIASCO…

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/more-sports/doctor-slams-team-boss-over-caster-semenya-scandal/story-e6frey6i-1225791490272

Doctor slams team boss over Caster Semenya scandal
By Mike Hurst
From: The Daily Telegraph
Tue Oct 27 00:00:00 EST 2009 Tue Oct 27 00:00:00 EST 2009

Fallout continues…Caster Semenya. Source: AP

DR HAROLD Adams, the medico at the centre of the Caster Semenya controversy, has broken his silence on the furore in a damning report to the South African Sports Commission and Olympic Committee.

The lengthy report, which The Daily Telegraph has obtained, damns Athletics South Africa’s president Leonard Chuene for "politicising’’ and sensationalising the case of Semenya, who ignored Dr Adams’ recommendation to withdraw her from the world athletics championships before she won the 800m on August 19 by the widest margin in major championship history.

Read Dr Adams’ full report here

On September 11, The Daily Telegraph published information from a Semenya sex test that showed she was an hermaphrodite or intersexual with no womb, undescended testes which were probably responsible for her having three times more testosterone than "normal’’ females.

Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.

Related Coverage
Athletics: ANC demands new Caster sex tests
Athletics: South Africa knew Semenya’s secret
Mike Hurst: Is a medal worth a young woman’s sanity
Athletics: Drunks break up Semenya meeting
Fresh look: Makeover for gender test athlete
Athletics: Carl Lewis fumes over Semenya scandal
Under scrutiny : Gender bender row runs into new twist
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

Read how we broke the story here.

In his report, Dr Adams confirms his advice to Chuene to stop Semenya racing on the world stage in a women-only event, saying: "I sincerely believe that Mr Chuene’s decision to refuse that Ms Semenya be withdrawn was reckless, short-sighted and grossly irresponsible.’’

Dr Adams added: "Did the possibility of a medal in the case of Ms Semenya reign supreme in Mr Chuene’s mind, and clouded his judgement, and relegated Ms Semenya’s interest, welfare and protection to an insignificant level in his mind. Did Mr Chuene consult with the ‘high-powered politicians’ to merely get an endorsement and political backing for his pre-conceived plan of getting a medal at all costs, as he stated himself that he wanted to ‘politicise the issue and cause confusion’?

"It is obvious to me that Mr Chuene’s orgy of lies had absolutely nothing to do with Ms Semenya, but had all to do with Mr Chuene’s welfare. I sincerely hope that Mr Chuene will one day meet his comeuppance for his actions.’’

By playing the race card early and often, Chuene and some other ASA and South African government officials created public hostility towards the International Association of Athletics Federations president Lamine Diack who last week gave up on the idea of visiting South Africa to speak personally to Semenya.

And the race card was dealt again yesterday when Dr Simon Dlamini, chairman of ASA’s finance committee, hit back at Dr Adams’ report saying it had been motivated by the fact that in winning the world title Semenya, a black, had broken the South African junior 800m record set 26 years ago by Zola Budd, a white athlete.

"The whole issue is [because] the girl broke the record [of] Zola Budd,’’ Dlamini said.

"There are people out there who are walking along a racial path; we unify the community and they break it apart.’’

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South Africa athletics board suspended over Semenya tests
Reuters
Last updated 06:38 06/11/2009

South Africa’s Olympic governing body has suspended the president and board of Athletics South Africa over their handling of 800 metres world champion Caster Semenya’s gender verification tests.

The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) announced on Thursday that ASA President Leonard Chuene and the ASA board would be "suspended with immediate effect pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation and further action.

“The suspended individuals will appear before a disciplinary enquiry to answer charges of bringing ASA, the sport of athletics, SASCOC and sport in general into disrepute,” the statement said.

SASCOC said it was also considering “taking appropriate action against the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for its disregard of Ms Semenya’s rights to privacy”.

Semenya, 18, destroyed the field to take the women’s 800 world title in Berlin in August in the fastest time of the year.

The IAAF had already begun a gender verification process prior to the race but Semenya was allowed to compete pending the outcome of the tests.

It was subsequently disclosed that ASA conducted gender verification tests on Semenya in South Africa before she competed in Berlin. ASA President Leonard Chuene admitted lying about the tests, saying he had wanted to protect the athlete’s privacy.

No decision on the tests is expected until later this month but the IAAF has declined to comment on a report in Australia’s Daily Telegraph newspaper in September which said Semenya had both male and female sexual characteristics.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/3037477/Fallout-from-Semenya-gender-test

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Semenya row claims Chuene
5 November 2009

Hand-in-hand: Caster Semenya with Leonard Chuene

Winnie Madikizela Mandela and ANC have stern words for athletics bosses

Caster lauded at ANCYL gala dinner

Athletics SA president Leonard Chuene and the ASA Board have been suspended with immediate effect - pending a disciplinary investigation into their handling of the row over Caster Semenya’s gender tests.

The suspension was announced today by South Africa’s Olympic governing body, SASCOC.

SASCOC said it is also considering “taking appropriate action against the IAAF for its disregard of Semenya’s rights to privacy” following speculation over her gender.

Semenya won the women’s 800m title at the World Championships in Berlin in August, but reports have said that she underwent a gender test and Chuene later admitted to lying about the results.

In a statement, SASCOC said it called a Special Board meeting and "resolved unanimously as follows:

  1. Mr Leonard Chuene should be suspended with immediate effect pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation and further action.

  2. Mr Kakata Maponyane, Mr Molatelo Malehopo and Ms Phiwe Mlangeni should be suspended with immediate effect pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation and further action.

  3. The Board of ASA and its Members should be suspended with immediate effect pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation and further action.

  4. Mr Humile Bogatsu should be suspended with immediate effect pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation and further action.

  5. SASCOC should consider taking appropriate action against IAAF for its disregard of Ms Semenya’s rights to privacy (and)

That the suspended individuals will appear before a disciplinary enquiry to answer charges of bringing ASA, the sport of athletics, SASCOC and sport in general into disrepute."

It was also recommended that SASCOC Board Member Ray Mali should be appointed as the administrator of Athletics South Africa, to organise the appointment of an interim board pending the outcome of the disciplinary enquiry.

Sowetan Online

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I am also confounded by the logic of SASCOC: According to the reports eminating from SA, they suspended Chuene et al for lying about Semenya having a sex test. And they are considering whether to take some kind of action against the IAAF. Why? Because they did NOT lie when asked whether Semenya was having a sex test?

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The hole is getting deeper and the one is going to destory in the end is Semenya. Poor kid

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I’m sure you are wrong there. Plenty of collateral damage in Sth Africa. Many people are being destroyed and more to come…the Semenya Saga is certainly tragic, but need never have come to public light had it not been for the ruthless pursuit of personal glory by certain ASA administrators and ANC politicans. The Semenya Saga is a symptom of a wider disease within the ASA-ANC; systemic failure on a global scale. . . read on:

Elite South African athletes and a national coach have stood up against Athletics South Africa (ASA) for alleged incompetence.

Much of the criticism in a joint statement revolved around the team managers at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin in August, including ASA president Leonard Chuene’s personal assistant, Humile Bogatsu, and ASA events manager Phiwe Mlangeni-Tsholetsane.

Chuene, Bogatsu and Tsholetsane were all suspended, along with other ASA employees and board members including general manager Molatelo Malehopo, by the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) on Thursday for their handling of the Caster Semenya gender debacle.

And some of the athletes who competed in Berlin, including former world junior 200m champion Paul Gorries, Magda Botha, the team’s sprint coach and former Olympic walker Nicolene Cronje, have hit out at them with claims of mismanagement and racism.

SOME PRETTY BRAVE ATHLETES/COACHES SPEAKING OUT NOW…

“They were besotted with power - constantly trying to show the athletes who is boss,” said Gorries, who ran the 4X400m relay in Berlin.

"Phiwe knows nothing about athletics. Her comments showed this clearly! Hendrick (Mokganyetsi, team manager) was aggressive towards everybody and made numerous wrong decisions.

"Humile is nothing more than a secretary - she knows nothing about managing a team. She was also flown back and forth between Germany and SA, at ASA’s cost (to write exams).

"They (Tsholetsane and Bogatsu) were constantly shopping and not giving attention to what they were there for - managing the team. Or they were flitting around My Chuene.

“We were castigated because we did not, according to them, support Caster, but not one of them was at Khotso’s (Mokoena) or Mbulaeni’s (Mulaudzi) medal ceremonies.”

‘There is so much more that is happening in SA athletics’

An anonymous athlete who competed in Berlin, as well as the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, said the 2009 World Championships “was the worst ever”.

The unnamed athlete, who referred to the global showpiece as “bootcamp”, said there was “no communication” from management.

Botha said the team managers had “no experience”, adding that Tsholetsane “knows nothing of athletics” and Bogatsu “made no contribution to the team at all.”

She added that the tests conducted on world 800m champion Semenya had been handled “completely wrongly” and that Chuene, who later admitted to lying about the tests, had tried to force the team to cover up the mess management had created.

"In the last meeting before our return, Leonard tried to convince us this was the best team management ever in the history of SA athletics and that, if we had a problem, we had to remember we are a family and a family does not speak out.

“It was clear what he was trying to say - that nothing from Berlin should be discussed with anyone on our return.”

Cronje, who has not competed since she was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome in 2007, said she had been physically assaulted by Malehopo at the 2002 World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica, when she was 19 years old.

“Molatelo Malehopo called me aside together with Snowy Matthews and Magda Botha and he lost his temper,” she recalled.

"He smacked me several times in the face, to the extent that Snowy had to come between us and stop him.

"The next day Leonard Chuene called me in and asked me what happened. I told him, and his words to me were: “My child, should this get out to the press or your family, your athletics career is over. Let’s pretend it never happened”.

Cronje said she hoped to compete again but was worried about the state of the sport.

“There is so much more that is happening in SA athletics and I am not sure if we will ever get to the bottom of it,” she said.

“Sponsors withdrawing, cheap clothing being issued to athletes, money disappearing, athletes being mistreated, bad accommodation and food for athletes… and so the list goes on.” - Sapa

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Chief suspended over Semenya row

November 06, 2009 8:37AM
By Mike Hurst
AS the lights went out at Athletics South Africa headquarters, controversial president Leonard Chuene and his entire board were suspended by the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee.

The all-powerful SASCOC acted belatedly but with savage intent to end the madness that has been the ASA’s incompetent and ruthless management of the Caster Semenya affair in which Chuene lied when he said no sex tests had been conducted on their wondergirl in South Africa before she won the women’s 800m at the world athletics championships in Berlin on August 19.

Chuene, certainly with the support and perhaps even at the behest of some ANC government office-bearers, blatantly ignored firm medical advice not to permit Semenya to run in Berlin where she was first accused of “being a man”.

Now The Daily Telegraph has learned ASA’s office electricity was cut off due to non-payment of bills and the blundering federation has no more than 20,000 rand ($3300) in the bank.

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Sorry KitKat. The officials and administrator are being cut, but they can go back into the hole and get on with there lives. Semenya athletic career and life as it stands at the moment is not great.

I hope I am proven wrong about this.

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My apols to you. What I thought you were saying was that Semenya was the Only person who was being messed up. Certainly her life and career are in strife. But the board have all been suspended and ridiculed in every media around the world, including saturation coverage in Sth Africa. It would be hard for anyone in RSA to trust anything Chuene had to say ever again, so how you anyone employ him. He’s such a snake anyway, why would anyone want to…

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I read today that ASA owe 1,5 million rand, some (all?) athletes are still owed prizemoney from 2007. Athletes have complained about cheap (& nasty) gear, lack of support, team members treated along racial lines - blacks being allowed to fly from Berlin to SA to sit exams and then were flown back to Berlin, while whites were allowed to fly home also for exams, but would not have their fare paid back to berlin… this whole ASA expose started with a gender issue and has now been revealed as a racial issue.

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fROM tHE tIMES OF sOUTH aFRICA
[u]but the real story is at the bottom of the page[/u]

FINAL CALL FOR THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF ASA TO RESIGN

9 November 2009

On 30 September 2009 three of ASA’s member provinces called upon the Board of Athletics South Africa to explain why they did not disclose from the outset that tests had been conducted, on ASA’s instruction, on a South African athlete before the World Championships in Athletics; why the ASA Council meeting in Tshwane was not notified of this fact; why the ASA members were not notified that they had not been told the truth before the press conference was held on 19 September 2009 and to disclose what other facts, if any, they had been concealing. They were further called upon to explain why no action has been taken against any officials or employees of ASA who were party to the ordering of the tests and the events that followed.

The ASA Board never responded. It is now clear that ASA could not respond, as it had chosen to and had done tests; it had deliberately and consciously misled ASA’s members at the Tshwane meeting; it had no intention of ever telling the truth; and the facts they were concealing would inevitably bring about their own downfall. No steps were taken against any officials or employees, as the entire Board was directly implicated themselves.

At the Special General Meeting on 24 September 2009, the meeting unanimously agreed that ASA would co-operate with any statutory commission of enquiry. That commission of enquiry has taken its course, but the Board of ASA is now not happy with the outcome and seeks to contest it through legal means. The ASA Board does not have the mandate of all its member provinces to engage in any legal proceedings against SASCOC.

On 9 October 2009 a formal request was made for ASA’s most recent financial statements. On 19 October 2009 the General Manager of ASA asked for time to the end of that week to respond. To date there has been no response and, in breach of the Companies Act, no financial statements have been distributed.

On 5 November 2009 the Board of ASA issued an apology. However, the apology came only after the findings of a task team of one political party, and when it was clear that the game was up. Most importantly, there was no apology to the members of ASA who were lied to repeatedly.

Subsequent reports have shown that the management of ASA is riddled with corruption, ineptitude and outright incompetence. There is a very real risk that ASA is insolvent, which will prejudice ASA’s athletes, members and suppliers.

The response of the members of the ASA Board to all these developments has been to attack everyone else and to try to introduce race into the matter. There is no question that everyone wishes to see South Africa transformed from the dark days of the past, and the current ASA Board are not the only ones who seek to achieve that. The quest for a non-racial society and non-racial sport is not negotiable.

It has become clear that the Board of Athletics South Africa has no respect for either the truth or the members of ASA. It is also clear that the ASA Board will not hesitate to waste further money on yet more futile legal action. While the members of the Board are protecting their own positions, the sport and the athletes suffer. Athletics South Africa is now, in differing degrees, in conflict with the International Association of Athletics Federation, the South African Sport Confederation and Olympic Committee and all political parties in South Africa. There is no clearer indication that the Board of ASA has brought the organisation into disrepute.

[b]The members of the Board of Athletics South Africa are called upon to reconsider their decision to not resign. However, should they fail to do so by 12:00 on Wednesday morning, they will risk facing the following consequences:

  1. Formal charges will be laid with the ASA Disciplinary Committee against each individual member of the ASA Board for bringing the sport of Athletics and ASA into disrepute and also for violating the ASA constitution.

The Disciplinary Committee shall be requested to expel the individuals concerned from ASA and to ban them for life.

  1. A Special General Meeting of ASA will be called to consider a motion of impeachment against each individual member of the ASA Board.

  2. Criminal charges shall be laid against each individual member of the ASA Board for various breaches of the Companies Act, including the failure to provide members with financial statements despite a direct request.

  3. Criminal charges will be laid against each individual member of the ASA Board for fraud, for intentionally lying to the members of ASA on 12 September 2009, with the intention of causing them to act to their prejudice or potential prejudice.

Further, should ASA fail to pay to all athletes all outstanding and overdue prize moneys and to pay to all member provinces all moneys owing to them for hosting ASA events, legal steps will be taken to recover such moneys.

The individual ASA Board members are advised that should it prove to be the case that ASA is in fact insolvent, they will face the full impact of the law, and should it be shown that they were involved in reckless trading they will be held personally liable.[/b]
The members of the ASA Board and their supporters are called upon to place the interests of the sport first.

Statement made on behalf of:
Athletics Free State
Boland Athletics
Eastern Province Athletics
Western Province Athletics

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Now ASA board may be fired
Beauregard Tromp
November 12 2009 at 07:53AM Get IOL on your
mobile at m.iol.co.za

Submit your comment
The Athletics South Africa board is likely to be scrapped altogether as members embroiled in the Caster Semenya saga continue to defy an order for their suspension.

The battle has left a number of top local athletes, who depend on prize money, anxious.

Late last week, the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) decided to suspend the entire board of ASA pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation.

The board refused to heed the call and, led by ASA chairman Leonard Chuene, have reportedly been arriving for duty this week at the ASA offices in Houghton, Joburg.

‘ASA has a constitution that cannot be overridden by Sascoc’
“Their lawyers said that if we send in an administrator, they will interdict us. So we thought that maybe we should get rid of ASA altogether,” said a clearly peeved Sascoc chairman Gideon Sam.

They were waiting for a recommendation from the International Association of Athletics Federation before moving ahead with the removal of the entire ASA board.
Continues Below ↓

Meanwhile, Sascoc board member and former Cricket SA president Ray Mali has been appointed as administrator of ASA and mandated to form a board comprising members from the athletics board.

The interim ASA board would in turn constitute a disciplinary body to look into the handling of the Semenya issue and allegations of mismanagement.

The debacle surrounding ASA has split South African athletics, with four provincial bodies threatening legal action against their board if they fail to resign.

In a further twist, an SMS was allegedly circulated by ASA general manager Molatelo Malehopo in which he encourages provincial unions to stand by ASA and reject the “legally bankrupt” Sascoc’s suspension.

“ASA has a constitution that cannot be overridden by Sascoc, who have an insatiable quest to remove Chuene because of his contribution to transformation of sport in this country. Sascoc is not a transformed structure, who want to use the Caster issue to purge the ASA leadership without due process,” the message read.

Malehopo would not comment.

He and Chuene were singled out as having known about the sex tests carried out in South Africa before Semenya competed at the World Championships in Berlin In August.

In the meantime, athletes continue to come forward claiming money owed to them by ASA, the most prominent being world champion marathon runner Hendrick Ramaala.

“It’s frustrating because you plan for the money. Many of the other guys don’t have sponsorship and don’t have other sources of income. If you don’t pay them on time they can’t eat. Some of the guys are borrowing money to make ends meet,” said Ramaala, who is South Africa’s marathon record holder and has won the New York Marathon twice.

He said attempts to contact ASA were fruitless, with people in the finance department telling him they were still waiting for cheques - although sponsor Nedbank confirmed they had released the money months before.

This article was originally published on page 5 of The Star on November 12, 2009

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Athletics South Africa waiting on IAAF
Publish on Nov 12th, 2009

Johannesburg – Athletics South Africa (ASA) will for the time being remain eligible to compete in international events sanctioned by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

Last week SASCOC suspended ASA, but on Wednesday morning the federation named a provisional team to compete at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland next March.

Later in the day SASCOC president Gideon Sam confirmed the federation would be allowed to compete in IAAF events until SASCOC received a response from the world governing body for the sport.

“They can enter IAAF events until such time as the IAAF recognises our suspension,” Sam said.

“We have sent them a letter, informing them that ASA has been suspended, and we are waiting for them to get back to us.”

Despite the board’s suspension, along with some members of senior management, business is continuing as usual at the ASA head office in Johannesburg.

The board and suspended employees have vowed to fight SASCOC’s decision, saying the Olympic body does not have the power to take action against individual ASA employees.

IAAF spokesman Nick Davies was unavailable for comment.

—Sapa

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The Sowetan newspaper

Olympic body accused of ASA vendetta
10 November 2009
Mcelwa Nchabeleng and Ramatsiyi Moholoa

TARGET : ASA’s Leonard Chuene

PARLIAMENT has summoned the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee to Cape Town for an explanation of the suspension of Athletics South Africa.

Sascoc will brief politicians on November 17 on their decision to suspend the ASA, its president Leonard Chuene, deputy Kakata Maponyane and certain ASA staff members.

ASA affiliates accused Sascoc of using the Caster Semenya gender-verification tests saga to revive their long- held plot to remove the embattled ASA boss from the federation.

Sascoc caused a storm last Thursday when it suspended Chuene and the entire ASA over its handling of the Semenya tests.

ASA has instructed top lawyer Monty Hacker to challenge its suspension, which was applauded by Makhenkesi Stofile, the minister of sport and recreation.

The athletics administrators said the Olympic body “does not have the authority to suspend Chuene and ASA”, adding that Sascoc also must stop dealing directly with ASA provinces.

Gauteng North Athletics vice-president John Mathane said: “Sascoc took an unpopular decision without approaching the board of ASA.

“They were supposed to have approached the board with their recommendations.

“It is the council that has the power to suspend the president and the board, not Sascoc.”

Said Mpumalanga Athletics president Ben Makola: “Sascoc has a problem of its own, which they should address as a matter of urgency. They are against transformation.”

Eastern Cape athletics boss John Ncinane said: “The appointment of Ray Mali by Sascoc as the interim leader of ASA is a recipe for disaster.

“Ray is a cricket leader, there is no transformation in cricket. There is a hidden agenda because athletics is doing well in transformation and our athletes are also winning medals.

“There are problems in soccer after the Safa elections but Sascoc is not intervening. Sascoc and the department of sport and recreation undermine athletics because it is run mainly by black people.”

[b]Sascoc president Gideon Sam said they suspended ASA in the best interests of the sport, and that there were no hidden agendas.

[/b]

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By REUTERS
Published: November 19, 2009

JOHANNESBURG (AP) – South African runner Caster Semenya will keep her 800-meter gold medal from the world championships, and the results of her gender tests will be kept confidential, the South African sports ministry said Thursday.
Skip to next paragraph Reuters

The ministry also said in a statement that the International Association of Athletics Federations has agreed to allow the 18-year-old Semenya to keep her prize money.

“Whatever scientific tests were conducted legally within the IAAF regulations will be treated as a confidential matter between patient and doctor,” the sports ministry said. “As such there will be no public announcement of what the panel of scientists has found. We urge all South Africans and other people to respect this professional ethical and moral way of doing things.”

On Wednesday, the IAAF said the gender tests performed on Semenya had not yet been completed. The body had been expected to announce its findings Friday.

Before the 800 final in Berlin, the IAAF said it had ordered gender tests because of Semenya’s muscular build and rapid improvement in times. The case set off a storm in South Africa, and the IAAF was accused of violating her privacy. South African track officials were accused of failing to protect her.

Australian newspapers said in September that Semenya has male and female sexual organs, but the IAAF has refused to confirm or deny those reports.

After Athletics South Africa president Leonard Chuene admitted he lied about tests being conducted before the worlds, South African Olympic committee officials suspended him and the rest of the track body’s 12-member board.

The Olympic committee appointed one of its members, Ray Mali, as ASA’s administrator. When Mali moved into the track body’s Johannesburg offices this week, one suspended ASA official had to be escorted from the premises by police.

The sports ministry said Thursday it had asked the IAAF to apologize for its role, and had received this response: “It is deeply regrettable that information of a confidential nature entered the public domain.”

The IAAF also told the sports ministry it was not the source of leaks about the case.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/11/19/sports/sports-athletics-semenya.html?_r=2&hp

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I’ll wait and see the official IAAF release.

91

and this is why… :rolleyes:

[i]Athletics: IAAF deny Semenya deal
The International Association of Athletics Federations insists no deal has been struck allowing Caster Semenya to keep her World Championships gold.

The IAAF have contested a statement issued by South Africa’s Department of Sport and Recreation saying the athlete can keep her 800m title.

An IAAF spokesman said: “The case is not closed for us. The situation is the same as it was.”[/i]
http://www.teletext.co.uk/sportnews/news/d530bf1ada6feb177339f889b1e72e13/Athletics+IAAF+deny+Semenya+deal.aspx

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THANKS JOHN FOR KEEPING US ALL UP TO SPEED :cool:

AND WELL, WHAT DO YU KNOW, THE SOUTH AFRICANS HAVE SCREWED EVERYTHING UP AGAIN…:rolleyes:

As predicted (and as we all instinctively realised even before the IAAF’s “clarrification”) yesterday, this case was far from done:

THE Caster Semenya saga continues, and contrary to one headline, the case is far from “closed”.

If there is a question about Semenya’s sex, and for whatever reasons medical gender verification tests have not been finalised, then she will henceforth be ineligible to compete in women-only events internationally - until such tests have been completed enabling “experts” to clear her - or otherwise.

The International Association of Athletics Federations is under the legal gun to say nothing about Semenya’s “medical condition” but the fact that this remains “unfinished business” will eventually come to light next time she wishes to run for South Africa in an IAAF-sanctioned event.

Giving her the money, medal and title for her win in the women’s 800m at the world championships in Berlin in August is just a way of the IAAF satisfying the lawyers in the interim.

And a device by which the hysteria in Sth Africa can be hosed down until such time as there are people installed at Athletics South Africa who are rational, intelligent and above all scrupulous enough to see the big picture. That process is underway with the interim administrator Ray Mali now in the Athletics South Africa office - having had the incumbent knucklehead removed by the cops!

The IAAF were caught in an impossible position with the Semenya situation from the outset. When asked point-blank whether this man-like athlete was having a sex test, they could have lied like ASA president Leonard Chuene, or told the truth.

In deciding to tell the truth, the lawyers worked the game as a breach of Semenya’s privacy. So Chuene is under threat of prosecution for lying and the IAAF (until today’s “settlement”) was under threat of prosecution for not lying!

Under the lawyers’ threat, the Semenya saga had reached an impasse, so the IAAF - indeed also to save their own skin - agreed (happily I dare say) to allowing Semenya to keep the proceeds of her Berlin adventure just to be in a situation whereby legal threats were removed and matters may now progress.

But to be clear, the Semenya saga may slide under the radar for a time, but a resolution on her future running career remains far from finalised and until it is, her appearance on the world stage cannot be sanctioned.

93

no probs. The local paper today (Saturday) ran the SA version saying all sorted and she would keep her medal. Bloody journos :stuck_out_tongue: took me 20 seconds on Google 2 days earlier to clear that up.