“Get out of my face... get out! Get out!” shouted Egypt’s Transport Minister Kamel Al-Wazir at a junior engineer during a televised project presentation on Saturday, sparking a flurry of criticism. The minister has since justified his outburst as a “parental” teaching method.
The viral incident occurred during the pilot operation of the second and third phases of the Deirout highway axis in Assiut governorate. A video widely circulated on social media showed the engineer, identified as Mena Gerges, accidentally misspeaking, that the Samanoud axis is in Qalyoubia rather than Gharbiya governorate. Al-Wazir immediately interrupted the presentation to publicly expel him from the site.
The dismissal has been met with particular scrutiny following revelations that Gerges was working under severe personal distress. Abdel Karim Adam, a former assistant treasurer of the General Engineers’ Syndicate, told Al Manassa that the young engineer was struggling with his father’s serious illness, which “certainly affected his psychological state and performance.” Adam described the public rebuke as a “violation of dignity.”
The professional response to the incident has been marked by a swift institutional retreat. On Saturday, the Assiut branch of the Engineers’ Syndicate issued a statement condemning the “unbecoming treatment” and “inappropriate behavior” of the minister—himself an engineer—toward a junior colleague. However, the post was deleted from social media approximately two hours later. The General Syndicate has yet to issue an official comment.
Ahmed Fawzy, a member of the General Syndicate’s board, justified the deletion by claiming the local branch retracted its stance after viewing “the full video.” Fawzy further shifted blame toward the engineer, stating he bore responsibility for the error.
“He was presenting a massive project before the minister and the head of the Roads and Bridges Authority; he should have been fully prepared,” Fawzy told Al Manassa. “If the minister had ignored these errors, he would have faced significant criticism.”
Despite the outcry, Al-Wazir offered no apology. In a phone interview with television host Abdel Nasser Zeidan, he characterized his behavior as a necessary pedagogical tool.
“I want to teach my engineers how to speak and keep their minds sharp,” Al-Wazir said. “We teach them and are firm with them, then we pat them on the back. This is a teaching style. I am provoking and motivating him, just as you tell your son to study hard, then tell him he is the best in Egypt.”
Abdel Karim Adam has proposed that the Syndicate hold a formal event to honor and “rehabilitate” Gerges, noting that the public nature of the incident, captured on camera, significantly increased the toll on the young man.
The confrontation took place as the Minister oversaw pilot operations for several strategic development axes in Upper Egypt, including the Fashn axis in Beni Suef and the Deirout axis in Assiut.
