CAPE TOWN, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The South African government on Thursday launched a nation-wide campaign against a new set of hyperandrogenism regulations.
Sport should not be about discrimination and injustice targeting certain female athletes, Minister of Sport & Recreation, Tokozile Xasa said at the launch ceremony in Cape Town.
The campaign is designed to rally national support for a bid by the country's 800-meters double Olympic champion Caster Semenya to appeal hyperandrogenism regulations, introduced by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
The regulations were originally scheduled to come into effect in November 2018, but were delayed after Semenya lodged an appeal against them.
Semenya, who is the reigning world champion in the 400m and 800m track, is challenging the proposed rule, under which, female athletes with differences of sex development (DSD) will be forced to medicate to reduce their testosterone levels.
The South African people are aware that the IAAF has re-introduced regulations that seek to prevent athletes with hyperandrogenism to participate in the female athletics categories, Xasa said.
"Their intention is to force these athletes to take medication, to reduce the levels of testosterone in their bodies or be forced to compete with men," she said.
The South African government is opposed to these regulations as they seek to punish athletes who are endowed with physical traits, attributes and abilities, naturally, and subject them to medical procedures that seek to alter who they are, the minister said.
"We believe that this is tantamount to modernising barbarism and is indeed an attempt at civilising cruelty as well as making discriminatory practices acceptable in a world that should be steeped in a human rights culture," she said.
The South African government said earlier it suspects that the regulations specifically targets Semenya as they are only applicable to 400m to mile, including 400m, hurdle races, 800m and 1500m, the categories wherein coincidentally Semenya participates and generally dominates.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will hear the landmark case soon. It is expected that the CAS will give its ruling at the end of March 2019 or soon thereafter.
"We should seek to ensure that the South African voice is clearly heard until this ruling is made and our call to the rest of humanity to take a stand against discriminatory practices and subtle racism, wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head," Xasa said.
She said his government has appointed a high level panel to support Semenya in standing up to the might of the IAAF and to coordinate the country's response to these regulations.
"We are cautiously optimistic that we have mounted and presented a formidable challenge to these discriminatory regulations," she said.
