Chuene shoved out of office

Johannesburg - South Africa's Olympic body on Saturday said SASCOC board member Ray Mali would take over Athletics South Africa's administration on Monday morning as suspended ASA president Leonard Chuene faces the boot from his office in Houghton.

After a meeting on Saturday, SASCOC said in a statement that Mali would form an interim board to govern and regulate athletics in South Africa as the sport's embattled federation, which is reported to be heavily in debt, faces an entire restructuring and possible extinction.

SASCOC added that the suspended ASA board and members of senior management would face disciplinary hearings. The Olympic body said Deputy Minister of Sport Gert Oosthuizen had informed the meeting that "SASCOC is the lawful authority to authorise the suspension" after the suspended ASA figures had threatened to fight the ruling in court.

The decision to place Mali in charge follows an intense commission of enquiry following ASA's bumbling of the Caster Semenya gender controversy.

SASCOC president Gideon Sam admitted they had kept a low profile during the commission of enquiry, although a senior athletics official who was questioned said it was "a no-nonsense investigation" with four lawyers on the panel.

"It is not in anyone's interest to rough up a national federation in public," said Sam, who added that Mali, a former president of Cricket South Africa, would invite all relevant stakeholders in the sport of athletics to elect an interim board.

Oosthuizen said the Ministry of Sport backed SASCOC's suspension of the embattled federation after the board and senior management had lied and attempted to cover up gender tests conducted on world 800 metre champion Semenya.

"In terms of the humiliation of Caster Semenya, the Ministry has declared our support for SASCOC who have the powers to act," Oosthuizen said. "People must be held accountable."

ASA had broken ties with world athletics governing body the IAAF after Chuene resigned from his seat on the council "in support of Semenya" following a media leak that revealed gender tests had been conducted on the athlete by the IAAF on the eve of August's World Championships in Berlin.

But SASCOC said on Saturday it would attempt to mend the relationship and had already asked the IAAF to recognise the interim body in order for South Africa to compete internationally.

There are major global championships early in the new year - with the World Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar and the World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland both scheduled for March 2010, and the Olympic body said it was of the utmost importance that athletes in South Africa were not affected by the administration's problems.

Earlier on Saturday, Athletics Gauteng North became the fifth provincial athletics association to denounce ASA, the entire board stepping down, while Central Gauteng Athletics are set to meet on Thursday.