11 September 2009
Cape Town — Caster Semenya's right to privacy has been violated and lawyers must be briefed by the government to sue the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) on her behalf, says the National Assembly's sports committee chairman, Butana Komphela
He said today that the ANC's parliamentary study group would insist on legal action when it meets Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile next week.
"We will ask the minister to take drastic measures to protect Caster Semenya. Someone is guilty of leaking her confidential medical information to Australian newspapers."
While Komphela stressed that the Sydney Morning Herald report claiming that sex tests had revealed that the runner was a hermaphrodite had not been officially confirmed by the IAAF, he said the damage done to the young woman was incalculable regardless of whether it was true or false.
"We need to bring comfort," he said.
Her medical records appeared to have been leaked and her right to privacy violated in the must public way, he said.
It would not be a matter of contesting the medical findings, but how the issue had been handled by the international body.
"The IAAF must be held responsible; they must find out who is leaking information," Komphela said.
He said he was gatvol and proclaimed that he was "prepared to lay down his life for that girl".
Once the results of the battery of medical tests were officially confirmed, "then we can deal with the findings".
He thanked the South African media for not hounding Semenya and implored journalists to respect the athlete's privacy.
This morning Leonard Chuene, head of Athletics South Africa (ASA), slammed the international reports of Semenya's unusual biological make-up as "disgraceful".
He said that upon hearing the speculation about the results yesterday, he had phoned the IAAF to demand to know how the supposed results had entered the public domain. He said the IAAF had in-sisted that they would only address the matter in November and had denied leaking the report.
Asked how Semenya was coping with the international speculation, Chuene told the Cape Argus: "She is a very strong character. Her coach is there. And her father and mother are with her. You can call all the psychologists in the world, but what she needs is her parents. She is closer to them than the president of the ASA."
Chuene said Semenya would not be competing in any international races in the near future and was instead training "cross country" near her hometown of Masehlona, outside Polokwane in Limpopo.
Another ASA official, Phiwe Mlangeni-Tsholetsane, urged that the speculation about Semenya's sex end. In the meantime, she urged the runner to "be strong" and said she should be free to "exercise her God-given talent".
Last night, Dr Ross Tucker, an exercise physiologist and sports management consultant, explained the complex issues surrounding sex verification and said there were many grey areas.
One of the possible scenarios, he said, was that Semenya could have Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS). While the person would have a Y chromosome, testosterone and even internal testes, they would develop externally as a woman.
On the one side of the spectrum, testosterone could be produced, but will not be effective.
"Having testosterone is not enough. It must bind to the receptor to cause effect," he said.
Tucker said that in some cases, testosterone did not bind to the receptors and, in the case of a female athlete, she would not have an unfair advantage over other women. Therefore she would be allowed to compete against other women.
In Semenya's case, Tucker said that because of her deep voice, facial hair and athletic performance, there was a strong possibility that her tes-tosterone had indeed bound with receptors.
But her condition could be detrimental to her health. If she did have internal testes, she would be advised to have them removed because of the risk of testicular cancer. Tucker said this could be why the IAAF was trying to get hold of Semenya.
Tucker lashed out at the way her situation had been dealt with.
He said that in the past three years, four out of eight athletes who were tested for sex verification had since retired. Nobody knew who they were because of the confidentiality that should have been af-forded to Semenya.
Tucker said the use of the word "hermaphrodite" was probably "not entirely accurate". This was because the classification of intersex conditions did not use the term much anymore, except in very rare cases, and this seemed unlikely to be one.
By Murray Williams, Esther Lewis and Angela Quintal
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I am profoundly disturbed and ashamed by the whole controversy created by the mass media and the IAAF because Caster Semenya is a black African. This is considered racial profiling and gender discrimination. If this incident involved someone from the West or Europe, they would have applied international and diplomatic tactfulness to ensure that the laws of confidentiality were guaranteed, protected, and upheld.
But since nothing good could come from Israel or from Africa, especially for Semenya it is a crime for her being a Black person, she does not deserve any courtesy in this respect. However, let me refresh your minds about “Michael Phelps who is America's Golden Boy, but his recent partying has been less than medal-worthy. The 23-year-old Olympic champion, who has won a record 14 gold medals for swimming, spent a long weekend smoking weed and chugging booze like a college frat boy. And Star has the startling picture to prove that Michael — who has spent the months since his triumphs in Beijing living it up — is no stranger to marijuana! After this incident, he was caught again driving with an expired driver’s license with no actions taken against him. Had it being an Afro American or an African in the US by this time, he would currently be serving jail terms and all the medals taking away from him.
The issue of her sex and subsequent disclosure of this information to the general public is the “invasion and intrusion” of her privacy in keeping with confidentiality agreements, HIPAA, and other privacy laws governing her contract.
Even if there were any doubt and suspicion surrounding her sex, the coach, parents, and the Government of South Africa should have been informed behind closed doors, and advise these people to secretly discuss this issue and then grant her leave of absence pending medical examination. The only message that would be contained in the press release is that Semenya has pulled out of the competition for health reasons.
But this was not done, IAAF and the press decided to broadcast this information live thus causing this great and ambitious lady a public disgrace, ridicule, and humiliation which also affected image of South Africa in particular and Africa in general.
My advice to Semenya’s family is to institute legal actions against the IAAF and the press agency that released the information to the public because it was very unprofessional to have released medical-related information without the consent of Semenya, her coach and family, and the Government and people of South Africa. But if the information was disclosed with the approval of the Government of South Africa, the legal suit should also include the Government.
I am profoundly disturbed and ashamed by the whole controversy created by the mass media and the IAAF because Caster Semenya is a black African. This is considered racial profiling and gender discrimination. If this incident involved someone from the West or Europe, they would have applied international and diplomatic tactfulness to ensure that the laws of confidentiality were guaranteed, protected, and upheld.
But since nothing good could come from Israel or from Africa, especially for Semenya it is a crime for her being a Black person, she does not deserve any courtesy in this respect. However, let me refresh your minds about “Michael Phelps who is America's Golden Boy, but his recent partying has been less than medal-worthy. The 23-year-old Olympic champion, who has won a record 14 gold medals for swimming, spent a long weekend smoking weed and chugging booze like a college frat boy. And Star has the startling picture to prove that Michael — who has spent the months since his triumphs in Beijing living it up — is no stranger to marijuana! After this incident, he was caught again driving with an expired driver’s license with no actions taken against him. Had it being an Afro American or an African in the US by this time, he would currently be serving jail terms and all the medals taking away from him.
The issue of her sex and subsequent disclosure of this information to the general public is the “invasion and intrusion” of her privacy in keeping with confidentiality agreements, HIPAA, and other privacy laws governing her contract.
Even if there were any doubt and suspicion surrounding her sex, the coach, parents, and the Government of South Africa should have been informed behind closed doors, and advise these people to secretly discuss this issue and then grant her leave of absence pending medical examination. The only message that would be contained in the press release is that Semenya has pulled out of the competition for health reasons.
But this was not done, IAAF and the press decided to broadcast this information live thus causing this great and ambitious lady a public disgrace, ridicule, and humiliation which also affected image of South Africa in particular and Africa in general.
My advice to Semenya’s family is to institute legal actions against the IAAF and the press agency that released the information to the public because it was very unprofessional to have released medical-related information without the consent of Semenya, her coach and family, and the Government and people of South Africa. But if the information was disclosed with the approval of the Government of South Africa, the legal suit should also include the Government.
In all fairness, her privacy has been seriously violated. I was appalled when i first read about her purported medical results on Yahoo.com page on the internet. I couldn't bear imagining the shock and trauma this publicized results would put on an 18 year old person. She never made herself to be what she is. Again this is alos a call on all Africans to be more committed and responsible for their issues. Africans should put in place institutions on their continent to take care of their problems. I mean a person with abnormal biological make up wouldn't have been up to 18 years and even going into the public lime light unnoticed in the west or even in Asia. This is just one of those instances that exposes African intellectual inadequacies.