South Africa's first woman admiral, feted as a top achiever and described as having a sharp tongue and the knack for telling it as it is, has been found guilty on charges of fraud and assault *1, and has left the navy.

This was confirmed by the SA Navy communication's department yesterday.

Rear Admiral Khanyisile Litchfield-Tshabalala, one of the crew who went to Germany in 2004 to bring home the corvette SAS Mendi, was appointed as the navy's first woman admiral on Woman's Day in 2002 with much fanfare.

She was also the navy's director of transformation.

Last year Litchfield-Tshabalala was hailed one of Rapport and City Press newspapers' top 10 women of 2007.

Navy spokesman Lieutenant Commander Prince Tshabalala said Litchfield-Tshabalala faced four charges. These included assault, ill-treating a subordinate, fraud and crimen injuria. He refused to elaborate.

Litchfield-Tshabalala was convicted and fined in the Thaba Tshwane Military Court in Pretoria. She had resigned before the outcome of the case.

Tshabalala said the former admiral was ordered to pay a fine of R6 000 and the court ruled that R15 000 be docked from her pay for negligence and the loss of state property.

An Afrikaans daily paper reported that the conviction followed the admiral's attendance at a women's seminar in Johannesburg last May. A number of laptops were stolen from the venue during a lunch break.

Litchfield-Tshabalala was reported to have said she was glad she had not brought her laptop, as it would also have been stolen.

However, she later told the Military Police the laptop had been stolen.

They also found inconsistencies in her statement and she was charged with fraud.

The laptop, worth R15 000, was not recovered.

Tshabalala said the former admiral could appeal the conviction and sentence.

Litchfield-Tshabalala took on the rank of Rear-Admiral (Junior Grade) Director Fleet Human Resources in Simon's Town in 2002.

She joined the military arm of the ANC, uMkonto weSizwe, and was forced into exile in Angola in the 1980s.

In 1993, she returned and completed a degree at the University of Cape Town in politics and drama and in 2005 completed a masters degree in criminology *2.

She signed up for the Navy in 1997 after much confusion about which arm of the defence force she wanted to join.

Litchfield-Tshabalala has won numerous awards in the past few years.

She was a winner in the Shoprite Checkers-SABC 2 Woman of the Year competition in 2006 and won an award from the International Quality and Productivity Centre last year.

With acknowledgement to Melanie Peters, Clayton Barnes and Cape Argus.