Faulty air conditioning systems, vital for the cooling of critical military computer servers, have jeopardised the payment of more than 70,000 SA National Defence Force (SANDF) members’ salaries.
An internal department of defence letter, which TimesLIVE Investigations has seen, reveals the servers need to be taken offline to prevent a complete breakdown.
SANDF sources describe the situation as dire and say the payment of salaries of all junior- to senior-ranked members, including administrative and general support staff, is at riskt.
Defence force salaries are paid on the 15th of every month.
Every SANDF unit has a paymaster representative, but they do not do payroll payments, which are all centralised and run through the computer servers.
The servers are situated underground in specially designed and highly secure bunkers within the SAAF headquarters in Pretoria.
The systems ensure the payment of permanent and reserve force members and civilian employees.
The servers also process allowance payments, including to those deployed on the Sadc peacekeeping mission in Mozambique, where soldiers are fighting Islamic insurgents, and in the DRC, where troops are taking part in a UN peacekeeping mission.
The department of defence, in its annual budget presentation to parliament in March 2022, said it spent R30bn annually on the salaries of its 72,175 members.
The army has roughly 36,612 members, the navy 6,081, the air force 9,259, military health services 7,092, defence intelligence 1,003, with general support and administration having 10,082 personnel collectively.
The letter was written by Maj-Gen Mokete Shashape, chief command and management information system division, on February 6 to SANDF chief Gen Rudzani Maphwanya; SANDF chief of logistics Lt-Gen Xolani Ndlovu; acting secretary of defence Thobekile Gamede; and acting CFO Eric Sokhela.
Titled “Temperature Issues at DOD corporate data centres (SAAF HQ and Blenny)”, Shashape’s letter reveals it is the second time the air conditioning systems have broken down in the past four months.
“The chillers, which were repaired late last year [2022], broke down again. Currently the temperature at Loftus is 38ºC — as a result the compressor is faulty. At Blenny the temperature for the distributed platform is 35.5ºC. The central server is at 37.4ºC.
“The only option at this stage is to switch off the systems.”
Shashape says doing so will affect the “processing of members’ salaries and invoice payments, the acceptance of new mainframe machines [computer systems] that cannot be done in the current environment, and the relocation of the primary data centre will also be delayed”.
He requests Ndlovu urgently engages the department of public works to “speedily repair the chillers”.
Lots of women and children are at risk of not having food. Junior ranked members are also at risk of not having enough money for their bonds and school fees.
— Helmoed Heitman, defence analyst
TimesLIVE Investigations understands the servers should not be operated beyond temperatures of 20ºC.
Attempts to reach Shashape to establish whether the air conditioning systems had been repaired failed, with SANDF spokesperson Brig-Gen Andries Mahapa failing to respond to detailed questions sent to him last week.
Pikkie Greeff, SA National Defence Union national secretary, described the situation as “highly concerning”.
“There is a real risk that no-one within the SANDF will receive their salaries tomorrow [February 15]. There has been no indication whether the chillers, which are specifically designed to maintain the computer servers’ core temperature, have been fixed. If they have not been repaired, when will the repairs will be done?”
He said the cooling systems were initially repaired in late November.
Greeff said the challenge was to protect the servers from rising temperatures, and they had to be taken offline until the air conditioning systems were fixed.
“Taking them offline, however, means no financial transactions such as the payment of salaries or service providers can take place.”
Defence analyst Helmoed Heitman said it was a disaster that had the potential to become really grim for thousands of people.
“The impact on members will be huge, especially junior ranks who often live from cheque to cheque as they have no savings. While soldiers can eat at their bases, the real effect will be on their families who cannot.
“You cannot just tell a soldier, tough, and I will pay you next month. Lots of women and children are at risk of not having food. Junior-ranked members are also at risk of not having enough money for their bonds and school fees.
“The defence ministry should have been proactive and made a public announcement, alerting banks and other service providers that run debit orders about the issues and appeal to them not to punish the affected members.”
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