In the past 24 hours, the M&G and Sapa have both released cracker-jack stories exposing Athletics SA officials and Butana Komphela in the Caster Semenya saga. It turns out that ASA president Leonard Chuene and his general manager, Molatelo Malehopo, indeed knew about Semenya’s gender verification test in South Africa before the world championships (click here to read M&G story).

And Sapa reports that Chuene, Malehopo and Butana Komphela, the chairman of Parliament’s sports portfolio committee, had met Semenya on Wednesday night to coach her about what to say when she next addresses a press conference.

It’s time for this triumvirate to be booted out! At the very least, they should be the subjects of a proper investigation, and then booted out (because I have no doubt they have been lying and/or acting unethically).

But if the powers that be in this country fail to act, then we may as well kiss South Africa goodbye as an ethical home. Because failure to act means that nobody cares about the really important issues – truth, integrity and the potentially shattered life of young Caster.

I know that if I had gone through what Semenya is, when I was an insecure 18 year old, I would have been mortified.

In his election campaign, President Jacob Zuma spoke about not tolerating incompetent, corrupt and lazy officials. Now would be a good time for him show that he means what he says.

When I was 18 I visited the US on a holiday in the mid-1980s, and I still remember feeling so ashamed of being South African that occasionally I told people I was English. I know what it feels like to be shamed by one’s nation.

I don’t ever want to feel like that again, but I will should the likes of Chuene and Komphela not be dealt with adequately. I want to be a South African who can say proudly that I live in a democracy where truth is one of the virtues of our society.

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