Johannesburg - Gold medallist Caster Semenya arrived in South Africa on Tuesday to screaming fans, men shouting "marry me" and further condemnation of efforts to submit her to "insulting" gender-testing.

"To test our gender? They can stuff their insult, this is our little girl and nobody is going to perform any test on her," ANC MP Winnie Madikizela-Mandela told a media briefing at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg shortly after the South African team arrived.

A troupe of dancers made the floor shake and a police guard of honour in the international arrivals hall earlier collapsed in a crush of fans trying to get closer to the shy 18-year-old, who ran the women's 800m in Berlin in 1 minute 55.45 seconds, the world's best this year. They shrieked, tried to touch her yellow and green tracksuit and take photos of her with their cellphones.

Her compatriot Mbulaeni Mulaudzi cracked gold in the men's 800m race, while Khotso Mokoena won silver in the long-jump at the 12th International Amateur Athletics Federation's (IAAF) World Championships in Athletics in Berlin, Germany.

Politicians and ANC bigwigs criticised the media and condemned efforts to gender-test Semenya as either plots to undermine Africans' identity or plain misogyny. This followed a recent announcement by the IAAF that Semenya would have to undergo a series of tests to verify her gender, given her deep voice and muscular physique.

Semenya and other members of her team were ushered onto a stage outside the arrivals hall, where she stood beaming, danced, received hugs and listened to shouts of "Caster is hot". When she took the microphone she responded to the commotion with a simple "Hi, everybody".

Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya opened her greeting to the crowd with "down with IAAF, down".

Mayende-Sibiya said her department had written to the IAAF to determine why there were doubts about her sex.

"We sent the letter this morning. We hope to get a response in the next few days... is it because she's a woman, is it because she's African? We want to know why this was done."

ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, who justified his presence at the media briefing by arguing that the subject of Semenya's gender was political, said: "Whether they like it or not, she is a female... It is only those who gave birth to her who can say if she's a her or him.

Questioning her parent's commitment to her gender is a general undermining of the woman who gave birth to her... undermining to all women in South African during Women's Month."

Athletics South Africa president Leonard Chuene condemned what he said were efforts to "define" Semenya.

"We are not going to allow Europeans to describe and define our child... we will define our child," he told the press briefing.

A member of the ANC Women's League earlier told a reporter: "Must someone take out their panties to show you're a girl?

"Is it a sin to look like your father?" asked Gladys Nyamanye of the league's Ekurhuleni branch.

Fans, friends and family were at the airport, some having risen before dawn to drive to Johannesburg from Semenya's home province of Limpopo to welcome her back.

Even the mayor of her home town was there, as was her grandmother, 59-year-old Martina Mpati, who sang and danced while waiting for Semenya's plane to touch down.

"I'm just too excited to even consider the negative media reports. Caster is a girl, I was the midwife and I cleaned her up myself the minute my sister's daughter-in-law delivered her, so if anyone should know her sex, it's me," she said.

Pauline Mokwatedi, Semenya's neighbour at Moletji in Limpopo, where she grew up, added: "It's shocking for people to say she's a boy. How can a girl that we raised grow up to be a man?"

An all-women metro police motorbike squad would escort the athletes from the airport to Pretoria later on Tuesday to meet President Jacob Zuma, followed by a tour of the city.