Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

The first black Adjutant-General, chief of the SA National Defence Force's (SANDF) military legal services division, was inaugurated in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Major-General Bailey Segomotso Mmono was sworn in at a ceremony presided over by Judge President Bernard Ngoepe in his capacity as chairman of the Military Court of Appeal, at the Pretoria Military Sports Club at Thaba Tshwane.

"We must examine changes in the legal system since apartheid and beyond. Transformation is not limited to issues of gender, race and culture. It encapsulates keeping up with changes in the world around us," Mmono said in his inaugural speech.

He said failure to keep up with such changes would result in the demise of civil and military legal systems.

Mmono was handed the symbol of office, a metre long gilded sword, by his predecessor Rear-Admiral Charles Smart, who has occupied various legal posts within the military in southern Africa since 1976.

"Admiral Smart will not be leaving the SANDF. He will continue working in high-level tasks which require the skill and experience of a man of his calibre," Lieutenant-General Trevor Matanzima, chief of corporate staff said.

Matanzima said Mmono was a worthy and capable successor to Smart.

Mmono grew up in the former Bophuthatswana homeland, where he started his career in the Bophuthatswana Defence Force as a logistics officer. During those years he studied law part-time.

He was appointed a military judge in 1994 and a senior military judge in 2000.

He has a labour law degree and is an advocate of the high court of South Africa.

Mmono said during his tenure as Adjutant-General he would endeavour to improve his division's service delivery to the SANDF and the defence department by among other things, acknowledging that members of the division were public servants who would display loyalty to the country and serve as citizens and volunteers.