The Twitter Africa team worked remotely for more than a year while preparing to relocate into their Accra headquarters and officially launch operations.
So it was wonderful news when, on November 1, 2022, all of the African employees of the international microblogging and social networking service got to experience their first real working environment with peers.
Given that Twitter had opened an office to service its immediate interests, the end of the remote operations was meant to be good news for the staff and the African region. However, around a day later, something major and unexpected struck them.
By Friday, November 4, 2022, the fates of the Africa HQ staff had been determined: none of them was spared the big cut.
“The company is reorganizing its operations as a result of a need to reduce costs. It is with regret that we’re writing to inform you that your employment is terminating as a result of this exercise.
“Your last day of employment will be December 4, 2022. You will be placed on garden leave until your termination date,” the termination notice sent via email to them read.
Larry Madowo, a Kenyan journalist who works for CNN, provided this information.
Twitter is taken over by Elon Musk:
Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and a multibillionaire entrepreneur, acquired control of the microblogging platform on October 28, 2022, after months of legal proceedings for a total takeover of the service.
The billion-dollar deal’s conclusion, which was fraught with controversy and legal issues, had “put Twitter on an uncertain trajectory,” according to the New York Times.
Musk sacked three top employees, including CEO Parag Agrawal, in one of his first moves as head of the social media behemoth.
How employees of Twitter Africa were let go:
Larry Madowo provided more information about the odd manner in which the employees of the African office received their termination papers, stating that everything took place in a matter of four days.
He said that this occurred after the team physically occupied their new office premises in Accra, the capital of Ghana.
According to him, Twitter’s commitment to the continent is now being called into question by Musk’s action since “when it opened the African office in Ghana, Africans—more than a billion of us—felt seen, and now all of that seems to have all gone up in smoke.”
“On Tuesday, after working remotely for about a year, Twitter’s Africa staff in Ghana finally opened the physical. On Friday morning, they were locked out of their email accounts, and their work laptops stopped working.
“They then received email notifications on their personal email accounts that they were getting terminated,” he explained.
Twitter’s 20-person team in Africa is not the only one affected; many of the company’s employees around the world have also experienced this unexpected setback.
No severance for employees in Africa:
While there has been communication with Twitter employees, in particular, regarding obtaining certain severances if their employment is terminated, CNN stated that this is also not the situation in Africa.
In order to explain how this came to be, Larry noted that after receiving notices of termination, the African employees were expected to remain in place and do virtually nothing until their last day of employment.
“Typically, the remaining employees of Twitter will receive full payment and benefits until December 4 but until that time, they are not allowed to communicate with other staff, suppliers, customers or clients and they are to remain available at Twitter’s disposal in case they need to have a proper handover,” he added.
But again, he said that for the Africa staff, one other thing that has given them a reason to be further worried is that the email they received did not even mention any severances for them.
Larry explained it as, “At least for the African staff, that email did not even mention them by name; it just said ‘see attached.’ And even though Elon Musk said everybody who got fired would be getting at least three months severance above the law – that’s in the US, those in [the] Africa office didn’t get a next step, or if they’re going to get any severance at all, which some lawyers in Ghana are now pointing out could be a violation of Ghanaian employment law.”
Even if there are allegations that this termination broke Ghanaian law, it is unclear what the personnel at the Twitter Africa headquarters will do next.
