SA should support Caster’s uniqueness

‘It is not fair. I just want to run naturally, the way I was born. I am Mokgadi Caster Semenya. I am a woman and I am fast.” That’s what our champion runner said last year when the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said it wants to introduce regulations requiring athletes like Semenya to keep the levels of male hormone testosterone in their system below a specified mark for at least six months before they will be allowed to compete.

If enforced, this could rule Semenya out of many events this year. That is why she and her legal team are challenging it in the Court for Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland on Monday.

Now, Sports Minister Toko Xasa says government will back Semenya and her lawyers with a team of medical and legal experts from here.

We agree that the proposed regulations are not only demeaning, they violate Semenya’s basic human rights.

This is a matter of principle that South Africa, as a country, must stand firm on. Caster has brought us much joy and pride in her achievements and she deserves to have the utmost support from all of us.

She is unique – and what gives anyone the right to artificially change that uniqueness?