Black general appointed chief of defence

Lieutenant-General Siphiwe Nyanda at a news conference in Pretoria

The South African government has appointed a former guerrilla leader as the first black head of its national defence forces.

Lieutenant-General Siphiwe Nyanda was head of the African National Congress military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, during the fight against apartheid.

The General will now find himself in charge of many of the white officers who fought against him as a guerrilla leader during that period.

But the defence force budget has been slashed since the ANC won office in 1994.

Outgoing defence chief, General George Meiring

And even though thousands of new recruits from the old liberation armies have been incorporated, the overall size of the army has shrunk.

General Nyanda's first task, when he takes up the position in May, will be to reduce the military even further.

He will be cutting army numbers by 30,000 before 1999, leaving a slimmed-down professional force of 70,000.

The previous defence forces chief, General George Meiring, took early retirement after President Mandela rejected a report of his, claiming left-wing dissidents were planning a coup.

The coup report was widely ridiculed, leaving the General with little option but to resign.

The new chief of staff, born in Soweto, South Africa's largest black township, is 47 years old and was trained in the Soviet Union and East Germany.