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All stops are being pulled out to rally behind the athlete in her fight against the IAAF
Government has sought expert opinions from India and other countries as part of its mission to help Caster Semenya in her court challenge against the IAAF.
This was revealed to City Press by Sport Minister Tokozile Xasa on Friday, three days before Semenya was scheduled to take on the world athletics governing body at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over its proposed regulations aiming to restrict the levels of natural testosterone in women runners.
The landmark case will be heard from tomorrow at the court’s headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The South African government will spend an estimated R25 million to help with the legal costs as part of its fight for justice for the reigning 800m world and Olympic champion.
In 2014, the Indian government pulled out all the stops to help its ace sprinter, Dutee Chand, win a similar case against the IAAF.
The 100m and 200m Indian runner, who was 18 at the time, was banished from competition by the IAAF’s policy on hyperandrogenism – a medical condition, also known as androgen excess, which is characterised by excessive levels of androgens (male sex hormones such as testosterone) in the female body.
The arbitration court then ordered the IAAF to suspend this regulation for two years, citing insufficient scientific evidence to support the assertion that woman athletes with the condition enjoyed a special advantage.
The IAAF’s amended regulations have excluded Chand’s specialist events. They target distances ranging from 400m to the mile, which are also Semenya’s specialities.
Xasa said the sports department was entering the fray to fight what it called “a gross violation of human rights” on the country’s world-acclaimed citizen, Semenya.
She said government had helped to facilitate visas for the delegation that was going to attend the proceedings at the CAS.
The group is part of a high-level, 10-member panel that has been established by the department’s director-general, Alec Moemi.
Those on the panel include medical experts, people well versed in international sports law, and a select few members from the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) and Athletics SA.
The term of reference for the panel, which will be chaired by Moemi, is “to investigate, analyse and consider the current international development in the form of new gender regulations targeting female athletes”.
At the end of its one-month mandate, the panel’s legal team is expected to have developed strategies to challenge the IAAF’s regulations and prepare a winnable case to have the proposed rules set aside.
Xasa said the approach was different from a decade ago, when one of her predecessors, Makhenkesi Stofile, declared “third world war” on the IAAF after a gender verification row followed Semenya’s triumph at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, Germany.
“At the time, we did not have the direct kind of impact that you see now,” Xasa told City Press on the sidelines of a media briefing in Pretoria on Friday.
She said: “Through previous experiences, and after what countries such as India have done, we were able to pick experts from those countries and get support around opposing these regulations.
“Continuously, the IAAF withdrew its regulations and then, conveniently at certain intervals, would bring the regulations back. You could see that they were targeting Caster. That is why we are taking the lead.
“We have been supporting all the efforts to fight the IAAF on this matter.”
Xasa said she would attend the court hearing in Lausanne later in the week. It is set to last for five days.
Semenya’s legal team comprises law firms Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa Inc and Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, a Canada-based law firm that represented Chand.
In addition, the government will lobby support from the public, as well as from domestic sports bodies, international stars and other athletics federations to speak out against the IAAF’s regulations.
Moemi added that government would use diplomatic channels to drum up support for Semenya’s cause from international communities.
“We are gathering ambassadors to spread the message. The silence of Caster is important to avoid her jeopardising the case,” he said, adding that an online petition would also be established.
“We will compel our national teams to wear black armbands when they compete here, to show solidarity for Caster,” Moemi added.
He warned that government was “not planning for failure”, adding that “a loss will be catastrophic”.
“It is a worthy fight,” Moemi said, justifying the millions of rands that government had undertaken to fork out. He said government had an obligation to protect the rights of its citizens.
“There are no alternative plans because the court case will be the end of the road. That is why our plans are all geared towards winning.”
The IAAF regulations were meant to take effect on November 1, but were postponed after Semenya lodged her case before the sports tribunal in June.
The impromptu conference by Xasa on Friday came two days after media reports in England quoted an IAAF lawyer as saying that the world athletics governing body would argue in court that Semenya should be classified as a “biological male”.
Although the IAAF denied this, Semenya’s legal team countered by saying that their client “is unquestionably a woman”.
The CAS is hoping to reach a verdict by next month, six months before the IAAF World Athletics Championships start in Doha, Qatar.
- Meanwhile, Xasa will meet Sascoc president Gideon Sam on Tuesday amid a public spat between the two over the ministerial inquiry report into the affairs of the organisation.
