Cairo: Egypt, gripped by an acute energy crisis, has sacked at least eight senior officials in the state-run electricity companies over suspected links with the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
The sackings, made public on Monday, come after police busted six networks of Islamists accused of attacking power pylons and plants in six Egyptian provinces. Police said the arrested 40 people admitted to having received information from Brotherhood employees and officials inside the Electricity Ministry about the locations and productivity rates of the targeted facilities.
One of the sacked officials is Hassan Al Refaai, who served as governor of the Suez Canal city of Esmailia in the era of Islamist president Mohammad Mursi deposed by the army last year after angry street protests against his rule. Al Refaai’s last post was deputy head of a state-run power-generating company in Egypt’s Delta area, according to the semi-official newspaper Al Ahram.
More such sackings are expected in the next few weeks pending further investigations.
“These decisions come within the framework of developing the performance in all affiliated firms,” said Mohammad Al Yamani, the spokesman for the Ministry of Electricity. “Any leadership against which a security warning is issued will be excluded immediately.”
Egypt has suffered from almost daily electricity cuts in recent months.
The government says the problem, Egypt’s worst in recent years, is due to fuel supply shortages, high temperatures and “subversive “attacks by Mursi’s backers.
The Ministry of Electricity has promised that the blackouts will ease in the next few months and totally disappear in four years’ time.
Egyptian authorities have repeatedly accused Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood of involvement in violence and seeking to undermine the state. Thousands of the group’s followers have been rounded up since his ouster in July 2013. In December last year, the government labelled the Brotherhood a terrorist organisation.
