The SA National Defence Force (SANDF) is stepping up efforts to trim down the number of colonels and naval captains - and get the demographics right, it said on Tuesday.

"Due to well known historical realities, representivity in certain rank groups is totally imbalanced. The rank group colonel/captain (navy) is one of these rank groups where the balance is completely skewed.

"There are currently 804 colonels in the SANDF. Of these 585 are white, 189 are African, 23 are coloured and seven are Indian," SANDF spokesman Major General Mohato Mofokeng said.

"Another factor is the requirement for rejuvenation and (preventing) stagnation in specific rank groupings," he said, adding the imperatives came from the defence department's human resources 2010 strategy..

Mofokeng could not say how many officers "placed additional to structure" would eventually be retrenched.

"It is too early for that. They will not necessarily exit immediately. The plan is to use them productively elsewhere as the system has the capacity to absorb them," he said in a telephone interview.

He said an exit mechanism to retrench supernumerary officers, required under the strategy, was also not yet in place.

Mofokeng also said the process was part of the restructuring and transformation of the defence department ongoing since 1994.

The strategy document released in Parliament earlier this year argued the SANDF had to solve its staff problems before it could begin to address its funding and operational shortfalls.

"The strategy itself is based on the premise that it must provide solutions to solve the main HR (human resources) problem areas which, if not addressed, will lead to the deterioration of the (department's) HR composition and thereby the inability of the (department) to execute its mission."

With acknowledgements to Sapa and the Citizen.