CAPE TOWN - Tensions over pay and worries about discipline are undermining the integrity of South Africa's military, experts say, after soldiers marched on the president's offices last week in Pretoria.

More than 1,200 soldiers on August 26 defied a court order to march on the seat of government, where President Jacob Zuma keeps his office. Police dispersed them with water cannons, rubber bullets and tear gas after they tried to scale the compound's gate.

"It poses a threat to the integrity and the reputation of the defense force itself, which is a very serious threat," retired lieutenant general Moamela Motau said of the protest.

The government has already moved to dismiss up to 2,000 soldiers over the protest by the South African National Defense Union (SANDU), who are demanding a 30 percent wage increase for soldiers.

Salaries start at 2,250 rand (290 dollars, 200 euros) a month, half of what entry-level teachers earn, according to unions.

Defense analyst Helmoed-Romer Heitman said poor salaries and working conditions, worsened by racial quotas and bad leadership, have caused the defense force to deteriorate since the end of apartheid.

"For most of the last 15 years, promotion and appointment has not been based on merit but on whether you are black, female or a member of the right party," said Heitman.

The white minority government used the military as a tool of its repression, but in 1994 the defense forces had to incorporate former anti-apartheid guerrillas within the formal ranks.

Different skill levels and styles of training have never been smoothed out, said Boysen Landau of the South African Security Forces Union, which has backed SANDU.

"Non-statutory forces were forced to be integrated and the doctrine that was applied was the doctrine of the former South African Defense Force," he said.

Poor conditions and racial quotas also led to mass resignations by key pilots, technicians and other personnel.

South Africa in 1999 spent some 30 billion rand (3.9 billion dollars) in a controversial arms deal clouded by graft claims. But Heitman said combat readiness was "pretty close to zero" due to a cash and skills shortage.

"There are currently no fighter aircraft in service," he told Agence France-Presse.

The government told parliament last month that 48 percent of posts for combat pilots were vacant, 34 percent for helicopter pilots and 30 percent for transport pilots.

The military was also dragged to court last year and ordered to halt a blanket exclusion of HIV positive soldiers.

The military then revealed up to 23 percent of service members had HIV, an estimate made in 2004, when AIDS specialists warned the real number was probably closer to 40 percent, affecting South Africa's fighting ability.

Shadow minister for defense David Maynier, of the opposition Democratic Alliance, agreed that the defense force was "not in the position to conduct even fairly simple operations."

A parliamentary briefing on combat readiness has been postponed several times this year.

"We have planes without pilots and ships without sailors. We have spent money on state of the art equipment but we don't have the crews," Maynier told AFP.

Defense Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has however said she is "personally really satisfied with the state of readiness" of the military, whose main role has been assisting in peacekeeping missions on the continent.

Landau said unions are planning "a mass rolling action" until they achieve wage parity with police, which has been promised.

"Combat readiness starts from your mental state," he said.