Warrant Officer of the SA Military Health Service (SAMHS), Senior Chief Warrant Officer (SCWO) Moses Sebone, has died in a car accident. He was killed in a vehicle accident near Hammanskraal in Gauteng on Saturday.

Sebone was on his way back to Pretoria after attending the passing-out parade of the SAMHS Military Skills Development System basic training students that took place earlier in the day in Lephalale.

SCWO Sebone became involved in the activities of the liberation struggle as a youth in Thembisa on the East Rand, which led to his arrest as part of the clampdown on political organisations during 1977. Shortly afterwards, he left South Africa and joined uMmkhonto we Sizwe (MK). After completing his basic military training in Angola, he trained as a laboratory technician and medical orderly, the military says in a statement.

Upon his return to South Africa, he first joined the National Peacekeeping Force, and then integrated into the SANDF in 1994. He was appointed as the first black African to be a Command Sergeant Major in the Department of Defence. This was followed by appointments as Formation Warrant Officer at the Tertiary Military Health Formation and the SAMHS Inspectorate. In 2005, SCWO Sebone became the first black African to be the Warrant Officer of the SAMHS.

The Chief of the SANDF and Surgeon General of the SANDF has extended their deepest condolences to the family and friends of SCWO Sebone.