The teenager, whose gender is the subject of an investigation by the world governing body International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), is due to touch down from Berlin at OR Tambo International Airport at 8.40am and officials are making special arrangements for her arrival.

A stage has been erected the airport for entertainment and speakers while the approach road to the airport will be closed between 6.30am until noon because of the volume of people expected to try to get to the terminal to meet Semenya.

From the airport, Semenya, men's 800m gold medalist Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and long jump silver medalist Kgotso Mokoena, will travel to meet President Jacob Zuma at his Presidential guest house in Pretoria at about lunchtime.

South Africans of all races have rallied to the support of the 18-year-old after the allegations which have split the athletics world.

The African National Congress' (ANC) Youth League President Julius Malema will join delegations from the ANC Women's League and the Progressive Women's Forum, chaired by ANC national chairwoman Baleka Mbete, to welcome Semenya home.

The Trade union federation Cosatu yesterday called on its members to "flock" to the airport to welcome the team.

Several busloads of relatives and friends from Ga-Masehlong, the small village in Limpopo 200 miles north of Johannesburg where Semenya was born, are expected to attend the event.

The University of Pretoria, where Semenya studies, has laid on a bus to ferry her training mates and students to the airport, where even more people are expected to gather than in October 2007 when the country's rugby union team returned home from Paris after winning the World Cup.

Semenya has become a worldwide figure and has received an invitation to fly to Chicago to appear on the Oprah Winfrey talk show.

A Facebook page set-up in support of Semenya has now attracted 35,000 members.

Meanwhile, it has been claimed Semenya is being "targeted" because of society's inability to recognise that black people could excel, South Africa's Commission for Employment Equity chairman Jimmy Manyi has claimed.

Manyi claimed the controversy around Semenya's gender illustrated that black and coloured people were not considered equal in the workplace.

He said: "Because she's black all kinds of things are coming out now.

"Why can't society accept black competence?

"I am absolutely disgusted."

The ANC Women’s League has asked motorists to switch on their headlights this morning as a sign of solidarity with Semenya.