2 days ago
‘I'm not quitting, I'll stay until I die': Transport minister defends road quality amid uproar after 19 women killed in Monufiya collision
Kamel al-Wazir, the deputy prime minister and transport, trade and industry minister, pushed back on Sunday against public outcry over the standard of road maintenance and development works after 19 were killed in a collision on the Regional Ring Road in Monufiya.
The microbus transporting them to their work on a nearby farm collided with a trailer truck on the regional road on Friday, killing 19 women and girls, aged 14 to 22, and injuring three others. The victims were buried in a group funeral the same day in their home village of Kafr al-Sanabsah.
'Your wish is for me to leave the ministry,' Wazir said, as he fielded widespread criticism of the conditions on the road amid development works he has overseen, 'but I swear I'm staying here until I die.'
The crash was the latest in a series of similar incidents in which workers have been killed on their way to jobs where they have limited state protection or support. As a result, a wave of anger has sprung up over recent days in the media, civil society and Parliament, directed at the government's half-hearted initial response, the danger of absent or haphazard road maintenance and the absence of labor regulations to protect workers, especially minors.
Wazir, the main target of criticism and calls for resignation, lashed out at his critics on Sunday in a visit to the road with TEN News anchor Nashaat al-Deehy, rejecting comments against himself, the performance of his ministry or the quality of the roads established during his tenure.
'Ask my classmates and my university professors about me. Some people are saying I'm an unqualified minister. On what basis do they say that? The Military Technical College taught me to be a fighter. I get upset and absorb any criticism with the spirit of a fighter. This is Kamel al-Wazir, the simple Egyptian peasant, and I work anywhere, whether inside or outside the ministry,' he added.
Yet other ministers, including Prime Minister Mostafa Madbuly, have displayed rare acknowledgment of responsibility. Madbuly stated on Sunday that he and the whole Cabinet 'are sorry for the incident which has caused pain to all Egyptians, as the blow is a blow to us all,' and that words of condolence and sympathy 'do not adequately express this great loss.'
He also noted that, as per the president's orders, families of the victims would be exempted from school fees, receive an exceptional pension and have government buildings and streets in the village named after them.
Madbuly's condolences coincided with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mahmoud Fawzy's, with the minister going so far as to state that the government is 'not saying we are exempt from responsibility.'
But in the same breath, Fawzy, who was speaking at Sunday's general session in the House of Representatives, defended the government's road development efforts, saying they had contributed to a reduction in deaths and injuries by 18 percent and incidents by 30 percent, arguing that road traffic is a 'collective' responsibility while accusing drivers of not maintaining awareness and upholding traffic regulations.
The ministers' Sunday responses followed weak initial engagement with the news of the crash and the victims' families. Wazir was reportedly travelling at the time of the collision and did not attend the scene on Friday, speaking only the following day and relaying his comments through his favored news anchor, Ahmed Moussa.
Madbuly, meanwhile, attended the opening of a private sector factory on Saturday without making any statement on the incident.
'The government did not stand with the Egyptians during this tragedy or utter a word of consolation. Not a single government official attended the funeral,' said MP Adel Moneim Imam during Sunday's House session.
Calling the Regional Ring Road in Monufiya 'a route to the afterlife' that has cost the state around LE20.5 billion, Imam added that the highway has been 'in the worst condition, with mountains of speed bumps in most areas and tariff points generating thousands, if not millions [in profit], per day.'
MP Hany Khadr echoed the concerns, noting that maintenance works on the road —which were personally supervised by Wazir — began without any precautionary measures to ensure the safety of citizens, resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries.
Both MPs added their voices to demands for a fact-finding committee to be formed to investigate the collapse of roads and review new road projects in general, especially the regional road.
As criticism escalated in the wake of the Friday crash, the government significantly increased the compensation offered to the families of the victims.
Adding to an initial set of grants to be paid out to the families of each of those injured or killed by the Social Solidarity Ministry, the Financial Regulatory Authority and the Labor Ministry, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered on Saturday that an additional grant be paid out, worth an extra LE100,000 for the family of each deceased person and LE25,000 for each of the injured.
For its part, the recently-established National Front Party announced the disbursement of LE100,000 to each family of the deceased and LE50,000 to each of the injured. The total value of compensation from state and political bodies could reach LE500,000.
Al-Azhar and the Religious Endowments Ministry also mourned the victims and offered condolences to their families in public statements.
The presidential spokesperson's Saturday statement also noted Sisi's orders to closely monitor road maintenance and repairs and ensure their swift completion, especially on the Regional Ring Road in Monufiya.
A technical committee formed by the Cabinet, including a representative from the National Company for Roads and Bridges and the Engineering Authority, has confirmed, however, that there was no technical problem with the road, classifying the crash as an 'isolated mistake' resulting from a failure to adhere to speed limits, Monufiya Governorate spokesperson Moataz Hegazy said on Saturday.
Beyond that, Wazir is set to hold a press conference in the coming week to highlight road hazards and incidents, with stricter enforcement of traffic rules promised over the coming period. He challenged any media figures criticizing him or pushing to bring in a consultant to review the cost of road construction and maintenance.
No broader investigation into the incident is planned beyond the trial of the truck driver.
The driver was arrested and detained on Friday, with the Public Prosecution saying he had crossed the barrier separating two roads to cause the crash and that a blood test confirmed that he was under the influence of drugs at the time.
Wazir doubled down on the driver's role as the sole cause of the collision. 'He was driving without a license and under the influence of drugs, and in the end, we're the ones responsible? We have a responsibility and we don't shirk it, but where is the crime we committed?' The minister said on Sunday while on a visit to the road in which he offered his first condolences to the victims.
He stressed that his ministry, as well as the Armed Forces Engineering Authority, which he headed during its implementation of the road development works, followed all the necessary regulations.
But workers, including minors, dying in terrible collisions while crammed inside unsuitable transportation, traveling on unmaintained roads to low-paying farming or factory work, is a relatively common occurrence in Egypt. Last year witnessed several major incidents, including 10 who were killed in a ferry accident in Giza in May and 10 factory workers killed on a Daqahlia-Port Said road in November.
Critics outside the media sphere have pointed to major gaps in labor protections as a factor compounding the vulnerability of victims to incidents like Friday's microbus crash.
The National Council for Human Rights issued a statement on Saturday describing the cause of the crash as negligence in providing safe transportation for female workers and an absence of policies guaranteeing the rights to decent work in a safe environment — especially for girls and women in marginalized areas.
'The incident should not be reduced to a traffic accident,' said the New Woman Foundation, a non governmental organization working on public policy, echoing the rights council's line.
The foundation's statement on Saturday placed responsibility for the incident both on the state and private sector companies benefitting from the labor of female workers.
The crash is a clear manifestation of 'recurring structural violence' that sees girls forced by poverty and limited state investment in education to enter the labor market early, the foundation said.
This labor market, in turn, exploits the erosion of social support for poor families and the absence of effective child protection policies, the statement said, pointing to weak state oversight and the Labor Ministry 's 'inaction' in enforcing laws prohibiting child labor.
It also accused private sector companies of exploiting this situation to profit from the labor of girls, without providing social security or safe transportation, let alone decent working conditions.
Labor Minister Mohamed Gebran has said that ministry representatives are currently collecting data at the farm and that 'necessary action' will be taken if errors are found at its facilities.
For his part, the farm owner told the media it was closed on the day of the incident and that the girls do not work for him, placing full responsibility on the personnel contractor that hired them.
