Went through an interview process that spanned over a few weeks and had to interview with 4 people (individually, so that's 4 interview sessions). After each interview I was advised that I was successful to move on to the next stage. I also had to do an assessment which took a few hours to complete. All interviews went well and they acknowledged assessment was passed too. However, they went silent. I kept following up and eventually got a generic response that my application was not successful. I requested proper feedback and HR advised that the Manager of the department left the company with immediate effect which caused the delay. Also that the position was filled. I found out later through reliable sources that they actually were retrenching people. Common decency would dictate that you don't put people through that entire process if you know retrenchment is lurking in the background, and to get back to the interviewee.