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Some soldiers retrenched without retraining used their combat skills in crimes such as cash heists, a military trade union said on Friday.

"When soldiers are retrenched with a programme like the defence department's human resource plan and they are not retrained, they use their skills to take part in crimes like cash heists," said SA Security Forces Union (Sasfu) official Lindiwe Nkoko.

She was speaking to journalists in Pretoria about Sasfu's concerns about the low representation of black soldiers in the SA National Defence Force's (SANDF) middle management.

Nkoko said only through the retraining of retrenched soldiers and ensuring that more black soldiers were in managerial positions, would the instance of trained former soldiers taking part in crime decrease.

Nkoko said the human resource plan had been explained to soldiers as a method of "revitalising" the ageing defence force.

"What is basically happening is that older officials leaving the SANDF are being replaced with younger ones and soldiers who are older than 45 years and not in management positions are next in line to be asked to leave."

There were some soldiers who had held the same rank for close to ten years, without been trained or being given a promotion, Nkoko said.

She said the top management of the SANDF had black people who initiated progressive reforms for transformation.

"But the problem is that between them and the majority of soldiers, are white management who do not implement these plans."

The union said soldiers who wanted to take part in a Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) march on Monday , would be doing so in their private capacity.

"Sasfu is not affiliated with Cosatu but those of our members who wish to strike may do so as private citizens," said Nkoko.

She said Sasfu had never taken a decision to strike, explaining that Cosatu had decided to march on the military union's behalf after attending a Sasfu meeting earlier this year.

Sasfu members were advised to "cover themselves" by taking leave if they intended to strike on Monday.

Nkoko said Sasfu had more than 10,000 members countrywide.