What an unholy mess, now Winnie and Manto will help Caster

Johannesburg - The African National Congress has established a task team to support athlete Caster Semenya and her family, it announced in Johannesburg on Monday.

The team would be led by ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe and would include ANC national executive council (NEC) members Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, said spokesperson Jackson Mthembu.
"It is the ANC's view that Caster Semenya has been victimised and subjected to unnecessary public scrutiny, thus denying her right, thereby undermining her dignity," he said.
Mantashe will meet Semenya's family at their home in Limpopo on Tuesday.
"This will enable the ANC to consult the family and get their views on the contents of the support we intend giving," said Mthembu.
The task team would meet Semenya herself later on Tuesday at the University of Pretoria.


Asked how it would deal with the formal release of the IAAF findings, Mthembu said the ANC would "cross that bridge when we come to it".

A group of professionals would be assembled who would be able to assist Semenya and the party to deal with the issue at that time.

On September 19, Athletics SA (ASA) president Leonard Chuene admitted to lying about not having any knowledge of gender tests conducted on Semenya without her knowledge in Pretoria in August, to protect her privacy.
He also admitted he had refused to accept the advice of ASA team doctor Harold Adams to withdraw Caster Semenya from the world athletics championships in Berlin.
Semenya's coach Wilfred Daniels resigned over these tests, claiming Semenya was duped into believing she was undergoing standard doping tests instead of gender tests.

Chuene has already said he will not accept the IAAF results, charging that it did not follow the correct protocol.
Mthembu said on Monday that the support team would mobilise civil society, the government, corporate South Africa and the sport fraternity not only in support of Semenya, but also to ascertain the extent of the prevalence of intersex people in the country and how this should be addressed.