20 November 2009
	WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Intelligent approach to health By Thebe Mabanga

Not many people can claim to have contributed to shaping democratic SA in fields as diverse as intelligence and public health, but Fazel Randera has done exactly that. Parliament's recommendation of Faith Radebe as new inspector-general, which has stalled because of a technicality, harks back to Randera's time at the helm of the intelligence machinery between 1999 and 2001. This week, Randera recalled his role in helping to put in place a new oversight mechanism for intelligence, which separated secret service, or foreign intelligence from police, military and general intelligence. He notes that SA was the fifth country to adopt the model. He would have observed with keen interest how intelligence structures got drawn into political battles in recent years. Randera notes that while the legislative framework is "robust" the challenge may lie with proper implementation. He notes that "we await a full report" by outgoing inspector-general Zolile Ngcakani on how president Jacob Zuma's tapes reached his lawyers, and that the system needs to be protected by "politicians, civil society and [parliament]". After resigning as head of intelligence in 2001, Randera returned to his first love, medicine, by joining the Chamber of Mines as health adviser. The biggest health issue facing the industry is, of course HIV/Aids. In the period he was at the chamber, the industry set up a task team with labour and government and defied government by offering treatment. The challenge is to find ways to extend the treatment to miner's dependants and to encourage workers to take up treatment earlier so as to avoid the collapse of the immune system. He says the new political tone that seeks to undo a decade of denialism has been encouraging but the problem is daunting for a country beset with 5,8m infections. Randera (61) this year took up a new job as director of care and treatment at the Aurum Institute, where he is still involved with research and treatment of TB, HIV and Aids. After studying medicine in London, he shied away from working in SA until the mid-1980s, when a visit convinced him that change was coming. He and his wife Helen Rees, now director of the reproductive health & HIV research unit at the Wits School of Medicine, opened a practice in Mayfair, Johannesburg, and became politically involved with other struggle medicos such as Nkaki Matlala and the late Nthato Motlana. Randera was involved in talks with the ANC in Mozambique and Zimbabwe. He says SA can be proud of its democratic institutions, but "we cannot turn a blind eye to the huge inequality around us."