BIG BUCKS BACKING TEAM CASTER |

UNILEVER Lux is not the only corporate supporting Caster Semenya. Corporate South Africa have joined her team. Blue Label Telecoms, Cell C, Discovery Health, Richmark Holdings and DNI have joined Team Caster.

Her fight for dignity, equality and the human rights of women in sport took a crucial step forward yesterday with the filing of an application to the European Court of Human Rights. Semenya asks the court to find that the Swiss court has failed in its obligations to protect her against the violation of her rights under the European Convention on

Human Rights as a result of World Athletics’ continuing discriminatory attempts to restrict the ability of certain women to participate in female athletics competitions.

A challenge like this is costly and even though Semenya has made fortunes on the track in her decade of being at the top of her game, funding this herself was a bridge too far.

Semenya has accumulated a formidable legal team, both locally and abroad.

Gregory Nott and Patrick Brasher of a top local firm, Norton Rose Fulbright, are acting free of charge as the lawyers in the matter. The are to be supported locally by the best

South Africa has to offer including Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC and Wim Trengove SC. Her international team includes top solicitors and barristers from France, Canada and the UK. As can be imagined, this comes with a hefty price tag.

“We are honoured to support Caster,” Brett Levy, the joint chief executive of Blue Label, said. “These women must undergo humiliating and invasive physical examinations. It cannot be left unchallenged,” Levy said.

A source that viewed the application filed by Semenya called it a “formidable piece of legal and moral brilliance drafted by the best lawyers available”.