The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is set to boot suspended athletics boss Leonard Chuene out of his plush seat on the IAAF council, the Mail & Guardian has learned.
The IAAF is expected to announce its decision this weekend during the council meeting, which kicks off on Friday. Chuene was not invited to the meeting.
The fallout between the beleaguered Athletics South Africa (ASA) boss and the IAAF was sparked by the Caster Semenya debacle. Chuene has been under fire since September, after it became clear that he had lied about gender verification tests conducted locally on the 18-year-old 800m world champion before the race in Berlin. Cheune claimed he had not known about the tests.
He has since admitted to lying, but he has resisted calls for his resignation, repeatedly blaming the IAAF for mishandling the Semenya issue and threatening to resign from the IAAF council. He has served on the IAAF council since 1999.
The council meeting will not discuss the results of the gender verification tests it conducted on Semenya, the IAAF announced before the meeting.
Options facing the IAAF are to ban Semenya from all competitions, recommend that she undergoes surgery to level out any advantages over her female counterparts or clear her to run as a woman.
A senior athletics official told the M&G Chuene is paying the price for trying to drag the IAAF into the mud.
”He was screaming in public, telling people that he was going to fight the IAAF for the way they handled the Semenya issue … It’s game over for Chuene.”
Last month the M&G published the contents of a confidential report by ASA team doctor Harold Adams, saying that Chuene had told the IAAF medical team in a meeting that ”withdrawing Semenya was not acceptable to top-level South African politicians who are also in government”. According to Adams, Chuene said that ”if the IAAF insisted on Semenya’s withdrawal, it would face the wrath of the South African government, because it would not hesitate to take the IAAF to the highest court in the land”.
South Africa’s Olympic governing body, Sascoc, has suspended Chuene, the ASA board, its general manager, Molatelo Malehopo, events manager Phiwe Mlangeni-Tsholetsane and Chuene’s personal assistant pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation over their handling of the Semenya issue.
But it is unlikely the disciplinary hearing will take place, given the deterioration of ASA. Three board members — Larraine Lane, Hendrik Mokganyetsi and Chris Britz, who are said to be close to Chuene — have resigned. More board members are expected to resign soon.
”Sascoc’s disciplinary hearing might not even [occur],” the senior athletics official said, ”because people are now starting to realise that this is just not worth it … Chuene’s resignation will follow soon as well.”
Sascoc has since appointed Ray Mali to administer ASA and appoint an interim board.