Black officers expect a lot from General Siphiwe Nyanda. But they are also realistic about the problems he will face, writes Sekola Sello.

The newly appointed chief of the South African National Defence Force, Lieutenant-General Siphiwe Nyanda, takes office tomorrow (Monday) to face heightened expectations among the black officers corps.

Many of the officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, welcomed Nyanda's take-over, and expressed the hope that he would live up to his promises to accelerate black advancement.

The officers said the force's middle management of the force was still exclusively all white and there was a greater need for the promotion of black officers in this section if transformation was to be meaningful.

While most of them expressed confidence in Nyanda, they argued that he was likely to may come up against ``many structural'' problems that are likely to be in the way of implementing his goals.

One officer said he did not remarked that he does not ``buy'' claims that there are white progressive officers who have embraced the new order. ``Yes, on the surface they seem to have accepted the new order. But deep down I have reservations and Nyanda is likely to see these problems sooner than later.''

Nyanda is aware of black expectations. In his address he Nyanda said one of his objectives was is to accelerate the affirmative action programme.

The changing of the command parade at Thaba Tshwane near Pretoria in which Nyanda took over from General Georg Meiring was a sombre and truly miltary affair. But even in its subdued way it was also very moving.

The main pavillion where the parade took place was a sea of white, middle-aged and bemedalled members of the navy, the air force and army. These were officers who until a short while ago had formed the elite of the SANDF.

They sat cheek by jowl with a sprinkling of black civilians such as like the ANC's chairman of the portfolio committee on defence, Tony Yengeni.

One could not speak of the blacks and whites mingling freely on this occasion.

During his take-over speech, Nyanda said his dream was to make the SANDF a home for all the people of this country irrespective of race, religion, gender or creed.

He appealed to the Afrikaners in particular to regard the SANDF as an institution that would will continue to accept them.

He said it ``would be tragic if white South Africans, particularly Afrikaners, were to feel that they were no longer important in the SANDF, and that it had become an institution in which only black people served''.

Nyanda made it clear that those who practised racism or favouritism, those who abused authority, the corrupt, the wasteful, the incompetent and the indisciplined would not be welcome in the SANDF.

Meiring warned that the SANDF should not be used as a ``political play-ball''.

He said those who did that, would be doing so at their own peril.

With acknowledgements to Sekola Sello and the City Press.