Uncertainty over transformation in the SA Navy was creating a despondent and disgruntled "enemy within", navy chief Vice Admiral Johannes Mudimu warned on Tuesday.

"They are capable of doing anything irrational because they have lost hope: this feeling of hopelessness makes them a danger to our lives and resources," he said.

Mudimu was speaking in Cape Town at an "empowerment conference" for non-commissioned officers and non-uniformed members of the Navy. He said having members who feared not having any future prospects, and members who lacked empowerment, affected their attitude towards the Navy. It also manifested in criminal activities such as fraud that sabotaged the Navy's already limited material and financial resources.

"Despondent, disgruntled and dissatisfied members are a threat to our cohesion," Mudimu said. "This is in fact the enemy within. They can only be rooted out by us all working together to expose and punish these unscrupulous and disloyal rogues that steal from the very people they are entrusted to protect with their lives."

He added, however, that this was not a major problem, rather "an issue that one has to deal with from time to time". There were people who were learning to live in the new order and to help drive change. Those who had knowledge and skills should share it with others, and should not feel threatened by Africans or women.

There was no need for anyone "whether you are white, green, coloured or whatever" to fear the future. Mudimu said transformation brought change and change brought uncertainties. Members faced with change could either participate, or simply "sit", which in itself was a threat.

"If members don't feel part and parcel of an organisation obviously they'll become a threat. It means somebody must communicate and try to understand what are the issues that demotivate them," he said.

"If statements such as affirmative action and equal opportunity, if those issues are not contextualised, they have a tendency to send wrong signals in the members' heads, and they feel that the organisation no longer serves their interests.

"That is our problem. That's why we need to communicate and say how do we address the imbalances of the past and what does that mean."

The Navy had been exclusively white, and since 1994 had been in the process of being transformed into a legitimate, truly representative naval force that reflected the demographics of South Africa.

"Criminality is caused by people who are dissatisfied in certain instances. The wreckages and some of the fraud that takes place: those are things done by people that don't believe in the organisation," Mudimu said.

"As a result they destroy the organisation from within. It's because some of the members are just disgruntled and dissatisfied with the order of things in the country."

With acknowledgement to Sapa.