Cape Town | Sunday
THE inspector-general of South Africa’s intelligence services, Fazel Randera, has quit after six months in the post, President Thabo Mbeki’s office said on Saturday.
Randera resigned from the post, which is meant to provide civilian oversight over the country’s intelligence network, for personal reasons, Mbeki’s representative Bheki Khumalo said.
He said parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence would soon make a recommendation to Mbeki about Randera’s successor, adding: “This will not affect the workings of our intelligence services.”
The seat of inspector-general has been empty for most of the time since it was created in 1996.
Randera’s predecessor, Lewis Skweyiya, resigned over a pay dispute shortly after he was appointed in that year.
Randera, an obstetrician and former African National Congress activist as well as former member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was appointed in May 2000 but was only officially sworn in June 2001.
Intelligence officials said the process of establishing the inspector-general’s office had been hampered by the illness of former intelligence minister Joe Nhlanhla.
The country’s intelligence chief is Vusi Mavimbela, a former advisor to Mbeki. – AFP