ANC outraged over athletics body decision to keep disgraced Chuene

Sep 25, 2009, 14:02 GMT

Johannesburg - South Africa's ruling African National Congress party (ANC) on Friday 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.

The party would ask the government and the South African sporting fraternity to 'redeem the integrity of our country in the eyes of both the South African public and the international community on this matter.'

It was unclear whether the party was calling on the government or the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC), which is conducting its own investigation into the case, to act against Chuene.

Chuene says he lied about Semenya's gender tests because he wanted to protect her privacy.

The tests were carried out at the request of the IAAF world athletics body because of Semenya's masculine build and suddenly- improved times over the past year.

The IAAF is due to announce the results of the tests in November. Several media have reported that the leaked results show Semenya to be intersexed - or having both male and female characteristics.