SPORT and Recreation Minister Makhenksei Stofile's department has finally broken its silence on the dispute between the South Africa Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee and Athletics South Africa, commending the Olympic body for dealing "with the matter in a responsible way".

SPORT and Recreation Minister Makhenksei Stofile's department has finally broken its silence on the dispute between the South Africa Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee and Athletics South Africa, commending the Olympic body for dealing "with the matter in a responsible way".

On Thursday Sascoc suspended ASA president Leonard Chuene, the entire board and some of the association's staff members over their handling of the Caster Semenya gender debacle.

This just hours after Chuene had apologised to the athlete and the country for their mishandling of the issue.

In a statement released at the weekend the department urged the ASA to pick up the pieces and allow the due process of the law to be completed.

Also suspended is ASA deputy president Kakata Maponyane. This is described by some administrators as a well-calculated move to hand over the ASA presidency to a person from Eastern Cape.

"Sascoc want major sporting codes to be run by people from Eastern Cape and have wanted Chuene out from the days of Nocsa (Sascoc's predecessor)," a top athletics administrator said.

This has been denied by Sascoc president Gideon Sam.

The ASA has hit back through its lawyer, Monty Hack, saying it will resist any move by Sascoc to dissolve its board, which was democratically elected.

A statement by Stofile's department said: "In the case of Sascoc, this responsibility was exercised in a very responsible and professional way. Sufficient time was taken to apply their minds to the issues.

"This was followed by an emotion-free investigation by a special commission of professionals.

The findings and recommendations are very well researched and formulated."