President Jacob Zuma with Caster Semenya, Khotso Mokoena and Mbulaeni Mulaudzi. AFP
Semenya in pay dispute
Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:00
Athletics South Africa (ASA) have denied reports on Tuesday that gold medallist Caster Semenya along with several other contracted athletes have not been paid their allowances.
"It is not true," said ASA general manager Molatelo Malehopo.
"All the athletes that have to be paid have been paid, including
Caster Semenya," he said.
Afrikaans newspaper Beeld reported earlier on Tuesday that Semenya did not have
money to visit her mother in Limpopo because the association had
not paid salaries to its contracted athletes.
Malehopo said certain high performing athletes - not just
Semenya - who were preparing for competitions received an
allowance based on their performance.
He said he would be happy to receive information on athletes who
had not been paid this performance-based allowance.
Responding to reports that Semenya did not have a passport to
travel outside the country, Malehopo said: "The report that comes
from team management is that she left her passport in the plane.
She has already applied for a new passport."
Meanwhile, the African National Congress Youth League has not
handed over the bonuses it pledged to Semenya (R60,000), 800m
male champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi (R40,000) and silver long jump
medallist Khotso Mokoena (R25,000) at a media conference in August yet either.
League spokesman Floyd Shivambu said arrangements were still
being made for the hand-over ceremony, expected later in September.
ASA's Malehopo said they had also not heard from the
International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) yet on
the controversial gender verification test reportedly conducted on
Semenya.
"The IAAF has never communicated to us at this stage. We don't
know anything."
The IAAF has not replied to emailed questions on when the test
results would be available.
Semenya's coach Wilfred Daniels resigned over the weekend citing
unhappiness over how she had been treated.
A decision on how the ASA would proceed following his
resignation would be made later, said Malehopo.