The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) suspended Chuene and the entire Board ahead of disciplinary action over their alleged mishandling of Semenya, who won the world 800 metres title in Berlin in August but whose achievement has been overshadowed by claims that she is a hermaphrodite.

 

Now, letters submitted to an ASA Athletes’ Commission a day before the suspension have surfaced, putting more pressure on the discredited officials.

 

The letters claimed that ASA officials attending the World Championships in Berlin earlier this year were more interested in shopping than getting proper kits and food for athletes.

 

They also claimed officials threatened to send anyone who questioned their authority home.

 

Accusations of racism are rife with claims white officials refused to eat dinner at the same table as black athletes while white coaches were accused of leaking sensitive information about Semenya to the press.

 

The most explosive of all are claims by Nicolene Cronje who said she was slapped repeatedly by the ASA’s general manager Molatello Molophe in front of two other officials while at the World Junior Championships in Jamaica in 2002.

 

She said Chuene covered up the assault and threatened to ban her from sports for good if she spoke out about the attack.

 

Cronje said: "I told him what happened.

 

"I told him this guy smacked me in the face and I started crying.

 

"He said: ‘Well, let’s pretend it never happened and if it comes out in the media your career will be over'."

 

The Sascoc are now preparing for a court battle over their decision yesterday to suspend Chuene and his colleagues.

 

Gideon Sam, the President of Sascoc, revealed that they have already been warned that the ASA plan to take legal action following suspension.

 

Sam said: "We are just saying that stand aside, so that the disciplinary can work on this, and then if the disciplinary committee comes out with a sanction, you can then appeal that sanction.

 

"But to stop the process in its tracks right now, you know for us it is a question of, so be it, then we meet in court."

 

Sam said that the Sascoc believed they had no choice but to take action over the claims that Chuene knew about doubts over Semenya's gender and he lied over whether she had undergone a sex-test.

 

Sam said: "We felt there is no way that we can allow a leader of one our flagship organisations to behave like that.

 

"Now as far as the other members on that management team, we just felt that they are complicit in the whole thing in terms of not having said no.

 

"Because what we are saying is that together with the people who are on the management team they had very little regard for the person, the athlete, and in our view, if we say that our motto at Sascoc is the athlete first, they should have considered that the interest of the athlete comes first."

 

 

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October 2009: Calls for politician to be banned from Semenya discussions
October 2009: South Africans demanding apology from Diack over Semenya
October 2009: Zola Budd to blame for Semenya scandal, claims ASA official