Johannesburg - Former Athletics South Africa (ASA) president Leonard Chuene was fired on Friday.

The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) said in a statement that Chuene, former ASA vice-president Kakata Maponyane and former director Simon Dlamini had all been sacked.

Chuene was barred from holding a position with any sporting code under the jurisdiction of SASCOC for seven years.

Maponyane received a similar sanction, but for a period of five years, and Dlamini for a period of three years.

Advocate Norman Arendse, the chairman of the disciplinary inquiry panel, ruled that Chuene, Maponyane and Dlamini be immediately removed from the ASA board and council, 15 months after they were suspended by Sascoc, and that their positions be declared vacant.

"Should Mr Chuene wish to return to athletics any earlier he must be required to show cause why he should return within a shorter period," the statement read.

Three conditions would be taken into account if he wished to return. The legal costs against him would have to be paid, he would have to repay money that he unconstitutionally appropriated from the federation, and he would have to show remorse for his actions.

Chuene, Maponyane and Dlamini failed to appear for disciplinary hearings in November and December last year, and did not turn up on Thursday when they were given an opportunity to raise any mitigating circumstances surrounding numerous charges levelled against them.

Chuene was found guilty on nine charges by the inquiry. Maponyane and Dlamini were guilty on four charges each.

All three were found to have brought the sport of athletics into disrepute.

Chuene and Maponyane were guilty of mismanaging athlete Caster Semenya when they forced her to compete at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, and all three were guilty of financial impropriety.

They said in a joint statement released by their lawyers on Thursday evening that they would return to the high court to challenge the findings and the sanctions.

An interdict to prevent the hearings and an arbitration appeal, in which they challenged Sascoc's right to suspend them, were turned down by the courts last year.