Egypt’s Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab announced Monday accepting Minister of Justice Mahfouz Saber’s resignation following controversial comments made on garbage collectors’ sons a day earlier.
Comments made by Justice Minister Mahfouz Saber on the inability of garbage collectors’ sons to occupy the position of a judge have aroused a wide wave of criticism.
Saber appeared on Sunday night on the daily TV show aired on privately owned TEN satellite channel. When asked whether the son of a garbage collector can be appointed as a judge, the minister answered that the profession of the judge should be occupied by members of a more suitable class.
“A judge has his own special position, hence he should be coming from a more respectful environment, financially and mentally,” he added.
“With all due respect to the garbage man, but if he works in the judiciary he will be depressed, and won’t be able to continue,” Saber said, eventually adding that the garbage collector should work in another “suitable” job.
After the show’s footage went viral on social media and local news outlets, angry reactions described the minister’s statements as “flawed” and “classist”.
Head of the garbage collectors’ syndicate Shehata Muqadas described Monday the minister’s comments as “shocking”. Muqadas added that “the government should remember that the country’s law entails that all citizens have the right to occupy different professions, without any differentiation”.
Muqadas added: “A son of a garbage collector can be more successful than that of the Justice Minister. Our profession is legitimate and respectable.”
Meanwhile, Mohamed ElBaradei, former vice president of Egypt and former managing director of the International Agency Atomic Energy (IAEA), wrote early Monday on Twitter: “When a country loses the sense of social justice, there is no hope,”
