Since I have a special interest in South African issues I have been keeping up somewhat on the aftermath of the firestorm that erupted when this unfortunate athlete was gender tested. Now most of us started throwing stones at her, but there is sooooo much more to the story. First, my views have shifted significantly on this issue. Imagine if this was your daughter, how utterly devastating to her and how this must absolutely destroy your self image!
Now the story comes out that the officials not only lied to protect her BUT now the ASA governing body have passed a vote of confidence for Chuene - the ASA president.
The media seems to have let this slide but I should think that the international athletics community should be unanimously calling for his dismissal, an investigation and boycotts until this obviously corrupt body is under new leadership.
Johannesburg - South Africa's ruling ANC party reacted angrily to a decision by Athletics South Africa not to fire Leonard Chuene as its president. On Thursday, ASA officials voted at a special meeting to keep Chuene on despite calls from the government, opposition, trade union movement and general public for him to be sacked after he admitted to lying about the Caster Semenya affair.
Chuene denied for weeks that the 800m women’s gold medallist had undergone gender tests in South Africa. But he admitted last weekend that ASA had arranged sex tests on the teenager **before **the world championships in Berlin in August. He also admitted he had rejected medical advice to withdraw her from the championships on the basis of the test results, **saying he could not deny South Africa a medal chance on the basis of “rumours.” **The revelations sparked a flurry of calls to oust him. But after a meeting on Chuene’s future on Thursday, ASA’s council “unanimously expressed confidence in the current ASA leadership.”
The ANC on Friday accused ASA’s council of dragging the country into further disrepute through a “very unfortunate” decision. It asked the government to act to “redeem” South Africa’s “integrity.”
“As the ANC we were under the impression that ASA would use the opportunity presented by its Special General Meeting to censure all those in its leadership who played a role in the mishandling of the matter and the maltreatment of Caster Semenya,” the party said.
By failing to hold its leadership to account or even suggest ways to avoid a repeat of the bungling of her case, ASA was “failing the South African public, Caster Simenya (sic) and the sporting fraternity,” the ANC found.