/ 20 September 2009

Sports ministry calls for Chuene’s head

Athletics South Africa (ASA) must ”fire” its president Leonard Chuene for ”lying” about gender tests conducted on 800m world champion Caster Semenya, the ministry of sport said on Saturday.

”We now request the membership of ASA to not only take disciplinary action against Mr Chuene, but to fire him from his position as the president of ASA.”

”If they fail to do so, they will be running the risk of being led by a liar,” Deputy Minister of Sport Gert Oosthuizen said in a statement.

He added that his ministry had noted with shock Chuene’s admission about lying about his knowledge of the gender tests conducted on Semenya ahead of the IAAF World Championships in Berlin last month. Semenya won a gold medal and was crowned 800m world champion.

The department, Oosthuizen said, had on two occasions requested a report from Chuene on what happened before, during and after Berlin.

Chuene admitted on Saturday that he had lied to the South African public about not having any knowledge of gender tests conducted on Semenya in Pretoria on August 7.

Chuene said ASA’s deception on the matter was intended to protect Semenya.

”After observing his acknowledgement, we are not surprised by his lack of response to our request. Mr Chuene has not only lied to us as the ministry, but to the whole country, and this is not acceptable.”

Last week ASA adopted resolutions, some of which pertained to the World Championships in Berlin, based on a lie, said Oosthuizen.

”We are convinced that the perpetual denial of the knowledge of these tests have fuelled the continuous violation of Ms Semenya’s rights and dignity, by foreign and some local media.”

Oosthuizen said he disagreed with Chuene’s insistence that he lied in Semenya’s interest, ”in fact, we are of the view that his lies were to Ms Semenya’s detriment”, said Oosthuizen.

Chuene admitted on Saturday that he refused to accept advice from ASA team doctor Harold Adams to withdraw Semenya from the Berlin race.

”I now realise that it was an error of judgement and I would like to apologise unconditionally. As president of ASA I will not, however, apologise for allowing caster Semenya to run or for protecting her privacy.

”We fully agree that we could have handled this matter differently but something like this has never happened in this country before and we at ASA believe we acted in the best interests of the athlete,” he said on Saturday.

But while Chuene was advised by Adams to withdraw Semenya, he said he refused to do so without any concrete evidence. He said that Adams’ verbal recommendation was not sufficient for him to make a decision on such a sensitive matter.

Chuene also said that Adams, who travelled with Semenya to Berlin, should have advised the athlete to withdraw herself from the championships.

The IAAF is still awaiting the results of gender tests conducted in Berlin but Chuene said he would not accept those results because the world governing body did not follow the correct protocol.

‘We do nothing …’
The Mail & Guardian reported on Friday about an exchange of emails between Adams and Chuene that made it clear that Chuene knew Semenya was gender-tested.

The email was sent by Adams to ASA general manager Molatelo Malehopo and copied to Chuene on August 5. The World Championships began on August 15.

It reads: ‘After thinking about the current confidential matter I would suggest that we make the following decisions. 1. We get a gynae opinion and take it to Berlin. 2. We do nothing and I will handle these issues if they come up in Berlin. Please think and get back to me ASAP.”

An emailed response from Malehopo to Adams, sent on the same day, reads: ‘I will suggest that you go ahead with the necessary tests that the IAAF might need.” – Sapa