About-turn in Semenya saga

The ANC has finally turned against Athletics South Africa and its president Leonard Chuene, accusing Chuene of lying over the Caster Semenya saga.

The party’s Caster Semenya support task team called a media conference on Thursday. It released a statement saying that in the past two months Chuene had claimed that his fabrication of events was designed to protect Semenya after the athlete was subjected to gender verification tests at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin last month.

But MP Winnie Madikizela-Mandela blamed Chuene’s lies for the Semenya imbroglio. ‘If they had not lied, we might have found a solution to this matter when they landed in the country from Berlin,” Madikizela-Mandela said.

The Mail & Guardian carried a report last month exposing Chuene’s string of fabrications, including his claim that he was unaware of gender tests carried out in South Africa on the 800m world champion. He subsequently admitted to lying, but has resisted calls for his resignation.

Last week the M&G revealed the contents of a confidential report by ASA’s doctor, Harold Adams, which said that Chuene consulted top-level politicians before deciding to field the athlete in Berlin, against Adams’s advice.

The ANC task team has recommended that the ministry of sport and recreation should further investigate the way in which ASA and the IAAF handled the gender verification process, and bring closure to the matter.

‘We are more convinced that ASA and their team doctor have a case to answer. They could have handled the matter better. They could have taken the leadership of the country into [their] confidence and avoided lying with regard to their role in this saga,” the ANC task team said on Thursday.

‘In their submission to the ANC task team they were less than honest and very defensive and did not disclose their role in the process and in sanctioning the gender verification tests conducted in South Africa.

‘They intentionally deceived South Africans, President Jacob Zuma, Semenya and her family. The paper trail exchanged between ASA and IAAF indicates that there has been mutual agreement between these two bodies to conduct the tests.

‘ASA should have protected Semenya before Berlin and in Berlin.”

The task team also called on ASA to come clean to South Africans and the government regarding its role in the Semenya matter. ‘They must unconditionally apologise to everyone, including Semenya and her family.”

The task team also raised concerns about the conduct of the ASA board. ‘When they met Chuene last month they acted as if nothing happened,” said ANC national spokesperson Jackson Mthembu.

‘They have performed dismally and it is now up to government to see what they do with them.”

Meanwhile, Glynnis Underhill reports that the South African Sports Confederation and Olympics Committee (Sascoc) has dismissed as ‘a complete fabrication” ASA’s recent claim to Parliament that Sascoc had denied the funds it needed to prepare South African athletes for the 2012 London Olympics.

Chief executive Tubby Reddy said Sascoc had identified 14 athletes for funding support in terms of its Operation Excellence programme. ‘We then received a letter from ASA saying they didn’t want us to engage with their athletes and its officials started not pitching up to meetings.”

Reddy said Sascoc would push ahead with Operation Excellence with or without ASA’s support.