The appellant, a captain in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), transferred in 1993 from the Military Police Corps to the Professional Officers' Corps (POC) as a military law officer. As a condition of transfer, he retained his rank and salary but lost seniority, meaning his seniority date was reset to 1 January 1993. This adversely delayed his promotions and remuneration. He had accepted these conditions in writing. Years later, he challenged the loss of seniority, contending that only the Minister of Defence could impose such a condition under the Defence Act regulations, that the condition imposed by the Chief of the Army was ultra vires, and that his prior service had been unlawfully disregarded.