The South African Navy is making a potentially disastrous mistake in shedding many of its most experienced seamen just before the delivery of the new corvettes, warns retired admiral Chris Bennett.

Drastic changes in navy personnel are being carried out in order to achieve strict racial quotas.

Four corvettes, part of the controversial arms deal, are being built in Germany. The first two will reach South Africa late this year. Three submarines are also due for delivery from 2005 to 2007.

Navy chief Vice-Admiral John Retief recently outlined the navy's transformation target to the parliamentary joint standing committee on defence.

Blacks in the navy were to increase from 33 percent to 60 percent

The proportion of coloured personnel was to be reduced from 28 percent to 15 percent, Asians from 10 percent to two percent and whites from 29 percent to 23 percent, he said.

Meanwhile, blacks in the navy were to increase from 33 percent to 60 percent in terms of transformation policy.

This means that almost half the navy's coloured sailors of all ranks, one-fifth of Asians and some whites will be forced to change their careers by the target date of 2010.

Many of the Asian and coloured personnel were recruited by the navy in the early 1980s and there are several outstanding officers and non-commissioned officers among them.

Bennett, speaking in an interview with Weekend Argus, said that transformation was essential for the good of the service, but the target date was only seven years away and that was far too soon.

In other words, some of the whites who left the navy were thrown out

"It takes more than seven years to train the captain of a navy ship," he said. "The captains of the new corvettes should have at least 14 to 15 years of experience.

"There is no way personnel can be trained before the first corvette is delivered. The new ships are very sophisticated, yet they are planning to man ships with the technology of the 21st century with personnel trained in the technology of the 1960s.

"An American general once said to me that 10 years' experience took 10 years to acquire. There are no short cuts."

Another problem with transforming too fast was that experienced personnel in the targeted categories would be alienated from the navy, said Bennett.

"They may decide to change their careers, even if their own positions are not threatened," he said.

Another naval expert, Jane's Defence Weekly South African editor Helmoed Romer-Heitman, said the navy should not have allowed itself to be "leaned on by politicians".

"Many of the present personnel were recruited in coastal towns with big fishing fleets," he said. "Their people have been seamen for generations - the sea is in their blood. Now they being told that the navy no longer needs them."

A spokesperson for Rear-Admiral Johannes Mudimu, Chief of Navy Staff, told the Weekend Argus that nobody would be retrenched because of transformation.

However, Admiral Retief appeared to contradict this in his briefing to the parliamentary committee.

In minutes of the briefing sent to Weekend Argus, he was reported as saying that the biggest exit had been by white members of the navy, through "natural attrition, disciplinary problems, voluntary severance packages or employer-initiated packages".

In other words, some of the whites who left the navy were thrown out.

There had been a six-month delay in delivering the first corvette because of construction faults and two corvettes (out of four) would probably arrive at the same time, later this year, he was minuted as saying.

The navy "does not really have the capacity" to receive two new ships at once and the delay would give the navy the chance to train more people to run them, he said.

According to the minutes of Retief's briefing, "They are simply going to have an old crew on a new ship."

He was aware things must change, but exactly how the change would take place had not been figured out yet.

On the training of Africans in the navy, the minutes stated: "Africans were trained on all levels. The delay in the delivery of corvettes meant that the navy would be able to send a larger number of trained Africans to fetch them."

Retief admitted that there was "a dearth" of black captains in the navy.

The minutes read : "The solace is that at lower levels integration has occurred smoothly. Blacks will move slowly up the system and will become sea-going."

With acknowledgements to Jean Le May and Weekend Argus.