Political parties welcomed the suspension of Athletics South Africa (ASA) head Leonard Chuene and its board on Thursday.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Congress of the People (Cope) said they had called for the decision for months, while the United Democratic Movement (UDM) hoped the result would be more than just a rap over the knuckles for the guilty parties.

Chuene, some employees and the ASA board have been suspended pending the outcome of an investigation over the handling of the gender testing of gold-medal-winning athlete Caster Semenya.

"I originally asked for [the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee(Sascoc)] to take this action on September 20," said DA MP Donald Lee.

"Athletics South Africa's handling of this matter has been shameful. This is the right decision from Sascoc, and we throw our full support behind it."

'Simply indefensible'

The party was concerned about how long it took to make the decision and that Chuene had the support of ANC Youth League president Julius Malema.

"This kind of support for Chuene is simply indefensible — it is an insult to Caster Semenya, who Chuene so badly betrayed."

Cope spokesperson Phillip Dexter said ASA needed to be pulled together.

"Athletics South Africa is in a sorry state of affairs and we call on Sascoc to investigate means to pull the organisation together, even if it means temporary direct administration of the ailing body."

Dexter said the eyes of the world were focused on the ASA for all the wrong reasons, and stressed that someone needed to be held accountable for the embarrassment.

Caster's passport missing?

"At the heart of it all is a young woman who can no longer compete in international events without questions being raised.

"It is almost criminal that, if reports are to be believed, this talented athlete through no fault of her own is now penniless with her passport having mysteriously vanished.

"Her dignity as a human being has been irrevocably infringed upon," he said.

UDM secretary general Humphrey Nobongoza said the party hoped that this was the beginning of a process to bring all the responsible parties to justice and that it would not just be a quick rap over the knuckles before returning to business as usual.

"A simple apology will not suffice after the sustained campaign of deception and deviance conducted by Mr Chuene and 'his' board," said Nobongoza.

"The nation and the president were blatantly lied to and those few who showed a shred of integrity (such as the coach) were treated with disdain."

He said no amount of punishment would ever compensate for the harm and suffering inflicted on Semenya.

"We cannot countenance that Mr Chuene and his cronies should ever be allowed to come close to our young athletes again," he said.

A disciplinary inquiry

Sascoc said it would also consider taking action against the International Association of Athletics Federations for its alleged disregard of Semenya's rights to privacy in announcing that she was undergoing gender verification tests.

Semenya won the women's 800m title at the World Championships in Berlin in August amid controversy about her gender.

At the time, ASA denied gender tests had been conducted on Semenya, but Chuene later admitted that this was a lie.

The suspended officials are expected to appear before a disciplinary inquiry to answer charges of bringing ASA, the sport of athletics, Sascoc and sport in general into disrepute.

Sapa

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