Morning Brief – Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Good morning. Today we’re covering the nationwide shutdown organised by trade unions Saftu and Cosatu, which will seek to bring the country to halt in a bid to get the government to act on the cost of living crisis and Elon Musk may have a smoking gun in his bid to walk away from the $44 billion Twitter acquisition.

Who, why, when and where: A quick guide to the Saftu-Cosatu national shutdown – News24 (for subscribers)

If you’ve been asleep under a rock and not reading the news then you might have missed the big story that is set to dominate the headlines today. Trade unions, labour federations and other organisations from across South Africa are planning to mobilise in protest against government inaction in dealing with the cost of living crisis.

The nationwide shutdown will see non-essential workers take to the streets in protest of load shedding, stagnant wages and ever-rising costs. Some of the demands include a R1 trillion intervention package aimed at uplifting the poorest and working-class households.

The taxi industry signalled that it would not take part in the strike while the government indicated that striking workers would not be paid. Protests are expected to begin at around 8 AM this morning. Read more here.

SA SHUTDOWN LIVE UPDATES | These are the routes to avoid – Times LIVE

In case you’re wondering how you’re going to get around town with all this protest action, Times LIVE has put together a live update blog to keep you informed of which routes to avoid when travelling today.

Be sure to check it out regularly throughout the day to avoid getting caught in a blockade that could cost you precious time.

It’ll also be a helpful guide for you to monitor the progress and scale of the protests. Read more here.

Elon Musk may potentially have legal ammunition after Twitter whistle-blower’s complaint – Daily Maverick/Bloomberg

In the latest episode in the ongoing battle between the world’s wealthiest person, Elon Musk, and the bluebird social media app, Twitter, a whistle-blower complaint alleging the company ignored spam and bot accounts could help Musk walk away from the $44 billion proposal to acquire the company.

Peiter Zatko, Twitter’s ex-head of security, alerted US authorities to “egregious deficiencies” in the company’s defences against hackers. Zatko was later told by Twitter’s head of site integrity that the company did not know how many bots were on the platform.

Zatko claims Twitter failed to inform Musk of the true extent of the number of bots on the platform, which it claims is no more than 5% of the 230 million users but Musk has made his analysis of the problem public and claims that as much as a third of users could be bots. Read more here.