Ray Mali, the temporary manager in charge of Athletics South Africa following the suspension of the president Leonard Chuene and the rest of the board in the wake of the Caster Semenya scandal, says he is keen to repair relations with the sport's international governing body.
Mali, whose organisation, the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, has taken command of the much criticised ASA administration until further notice, told South African media that one of his immediate tasks in the role would be to improve communications with the International Association of Athletics Federations, following the row over Semenya's sex verification tests.
"We are no longer isolated from the global community," said Mali "We will have to keep those international relations."
The IAAF council meets on Friday in Monaco to discuss the results of the tests performed on the 18-year-old Semenya, and make a decision over the athlete's future. There are several options the council could take, following legal advice, including a imposing full ban from competition, recommending that Semenya have surgery to level out any advantages over her female rivals, or clearing her to run as a woman.
Semenya, who won 800m gold at the world championships in August this year, is widely believed to have been born with an inter-gender condition, but the IAAF has so far refused to comment further ahead of Friday's council meeting. The ASA and IAAF have previously been at loggerheads over how to deal with the situation, the global body laying the blame with the South Africans for insisting on taking Semenya to the world championships despite suspicions raised over her gender as early as 2008 when she won Commonwealth Youth Games 800m gold.
Meanwhile, South Africa's athletics body appears to be in meltdown, with two ASA board members having resigned following their suspension. Hendrick Mokganyetsi and Chris Britz decided not to wait for the disciplinary hearing on the board's handling of the Semenya case, and quit as Mali took control of the ASA.
Mali declared his stewardship of the national governing body a "sad day" for the sport. "We will make sure that this is a temporary setback and that it is quickly resolved," he said. One of his first tasks will be to hold talks with the disgraced former president, Chuene, with whom he said he had been in contact and had promised "to meet and talk to me".
As Mali took charge at the ASA headquarters in Johannesburg, there was chaos as the general manager Molatelo Malehopo locked himself inside his office, prompting a call to the police for him to be removed. The scenes were the latest in a long line of embarrassing incidents for the governing body, including losing their long-term sponsors Nedbank, the national bank finally withdrawing financial support last month citing the Semenya scandal.
