Lizel Steenkamp 

Cape Town - Various attempts are being made behind the scenes to get rid of Leonard Chuene, president of Athletics South Africa (ASA).

A government official has said that conversations to put pressure on ASA to fire Chuene are underway. "Determined processes have begun. There are many things being done (behind the scenes)."

And the government's discontent stretches far beyond Chuene. There is "great discomfort" about racial statements surrounding the Caster Semenya saga. Concerns regarding how athletics is managed has also increased given Nedbank's suspension of their sponsorship last week due to the negative publicity the ASA has been getting lately.

"It is an indication of the gravity of the situation and how the public feel, if a sponsorship is suspended without consultation," the official told Beeld.

Chuene seems desperate to cling to his job since admitting last month that he had lied about gender tests performed on Semenya before the World Championships in Berlin.

Although ASA, on September 24, at a special meeting accepted a resolution of trust in Chuene and his management team, the ANC and the ministry of sport seem to have had enough.

Before the meeting, Gert Oosthuizen, deputy minister of sport, called on ASA to fire Chuene. According to Brian Sokutu, ANC spokesperson, the governing party's national executive committee have appointed a task team to investigate the matter.

Sokutu also denied that the ANC transported a group of people to the Tuks campus in Pretoria on Saturday, with the purpose of disrupting a meeting of concerned athletes.

Athletes who have represented South Africa  since 1994 met on Saturday morning with the aim of compiling a report that they wanted to send to ASA, the government, and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

According to Geraldine Pillay, a former Olympic athlete, the report wasn't compiled because Hendrik Mokganyetsi, a board member of ASA, brought a group of supporters to disrupt the meeting.

"Hendrik was hostile and aggressive. He said it's a racist meeting which was organised to badmouth Chuene. That, while the majority of us are black athletes."

Pillay said those who showed up uninvited were not athletes.

"They yelled and cursed and then started singing and toyi-toyiing in front of the doors. I did feel threatened, but the campus police made them leave."

Pillay said athletes are sick and tired of the "racial card which has been played over and over and over".

Athletics is about athletes. The yelling about racism is nonsense. We are trying to save the future of athletics."

On Sunday Mokganyetsi denied that he had brought a group to disrupt the meeting. "Can they (the organisers) prove it?" He attended the meeting as a former athlete, and also denied that he'd accused the organisers of racism.

According to him, Nedbank didn't suspend its sponsorship due to the Semenya controversy.

"That has nothing whatsoever to do with this. Nedbank should know that our main goal is transformation and development. Why did they suspend it without even talking to us (ASA)?"