Athletics South Africa (ASA) must "fire" its president Leonard Chuene for "lying" about gender tests conducted on 800m world champion Caster Semenya, said the ministry of sport 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 to lying about his knowledge of the gender tests conducted on Semenya ahead of the IAAF World Championships in Berlin last month.

In the competition Semenya won a gold medal and was crowned 800m world champion.

Since her victory she has been followed by controversy on whether or not she was a woman.

This led to international media publishing confidential gender test results claiming that Semenya was intersexed.

The department, Oosthuizen said, had on two occasions requested a report from Chuene on what happened before, during and after Berlin, and had not received a report.

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 7 August.

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

"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."

The ministry 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.