Egypt. Mostafa Madbouly, the man disfiguring Cairo

In the Egypt that emerged from the 2 January 2011 revolution, there was such a state of political and administrative confusion that no minister was sure of keeping his post from one day to the next.

Yet one man turned out to be the exception that proves the rule : the present Prime Minister, Mostafa Madbouly, who has managed to do his own thing for the past thirteen years now. After serving as interim PM since 23 November 2017, he was appointed to form a cabinet on 7 June 2018. This capped a career which began in 2000 and was exclusively devoted to the fields of urbanism and housing.

A family protection

Already as a young man Mostafa Madbouly preferred the school of architecture, and especially the study of urbanism, to the military academy, even though he came from a family solidly entrenched in the military tradition which is so deeply rooted in the structure of the state. His father was Maj-Gen. Kamal Madbouly Nassar, who graduated from the military academy in the same class as Marshall Hussein Tantawil¹ and is one of the commanders of the army’s artillery corps. His paternal uncle was Maj-Gen. Fouad Nasser², head of Military Intelligence (1972-1976) and chief of General Intelligence (1981-1983).

In addition, Madbouly’s wife is the daughter of Hasab Allah Al-Kafrawi, a personal friend of Mubarak and his former Housing Minister, and the grand-daughter of Osman Ahmed Osman, also Housing Minister during Anwar Sadat’s presidency (1970-1981). Not to belittle the PM’s competence in the field of urban planning, his coming from a family with considerable military and political influence obviously helped further his professional career, because in Egypt family connections remain a solid protective network, the best way to get ahead in public office and especially to get government posts which are beyond the reach of ordinary citizens.

In the shadow of Gamal, son of Mubarak

During the last decade of President Hosni Mubarak’s rule, his son Gamal’s influence was steadily on the rise. He paved the way for the growing influence of a number of businessmen and scientific experts in his entourage, among them Mostafa Madbouly, acting chairman of the political committee of the National Democratic Party which was in power at the time.

It was in 2007 that the idea of building a new capital city first emerged, when Madbouly was vice-president of the General Authority for Urban Planning. When this body submitted the project to the Council of the Shoura (the upper house of Parliament) a huge controversy broke out. Our urban planner defended the project tooth and nail but the President of the Republic stepped in 48 hours later to have it cancelled. Madbouly believed nonetheless that the development of a new city was a necessary strategic step to deal with Cairo’s overcrowding and the decline of the city’s services. His proposal was also part of a long term vision of the development of the country’s infrastructures.

While Mostafa Madbouly was busy climbing the ladder of government functions until he became head of the General Authority for Urban Planning, Gamal Mubarak was feeling an urgent need to present a neo-liberal project designed to serve as a future electoral program. The General Authority for Urban Planning under Madbouly’s direction provided him in 2008 with the “Cairo 2050” project which involved an overall urban development plan meant to transform the capital into a modern city in line with the neo-liberal economic vision promoted by Gamal Mubarak. The project was presented at the ruling party’s annual conference.

Rehabilitation under Sissi

With the 2011 revolution, those close to Hosni Mubarak found themselves either in gaol or excluded from public life, even if only briefly in certain cases. To avoid being tarnished by these changes, Madbouly chose to withdraw from governmental functions and joined the regional office of UN Habitat, becoming its executive director, well away from the growing tensions between the Muslim Brotherhood and its adversaries.

Although the future Prime Minister was always bright enough to avoid the limelight, and to grow in the shadow of the country’s leaders as a bearer of projects rather than actually carrying them out, his father’s closeness to Marshall Tantawi, who at that time was de facto head of state, also explains Madbouly’s absence from government during that period. It was not until the situation had been stabilised and the army had regained full control of the country that he made his comeback. Madbouly had been in charge of the General Authority for Urban Planning before the revolution, a job which usually made its holder a serious candidate for the portfolio of Housing Minister, but he was included in none of the cabinets that followed either the 2011 revolution until the June 2012 election of the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate, Mohammad Morsi, to the presidency of the Republic. It was not until the latter’s ouster that he was taken back into the upper echelons of the executive.

During that post-revolutionary period, the “Cairo 2050 plan” was no longer on the agenda, so sharply had it been criticized by many urban planning experts and even by officials in office under Mubarak. The latter were also supported by journalists considered opponents of the regime at the time but who are now backing the government’s projects.

The military coup of 3 July 2013 had the support of the population and lifted Defence Minister Abdel Fattah Sissi to the presidency. In 2014, Mostafa Madbouly returned to government as Housing Minister. One year later, at a conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, the Minister revealed, in the presence of Sissi and his cabinet, plans for the new capital of Egypt. Sissi had entered the presidential election without any real program, and he merely took over various projects which had been discussed under Mubarak but then filed away and forgotten. Immediately after the conference, Cairo 2050 was fully revived, with the approval of Sissi who has never concealed his admiration for the urban planning and skyscrapers of the Gulf monarchies.

No room for the poor

The plans for Cairo 2050 reveal an obvious determination to empty the capital of its poor and transform it into an investment hub to serve the economic elite. This “vision of the future” is largely based on forced expulsions, as was the case on Al-Warraq island and in other areas which the government has slated to become investment zones. Although it is meant to improve the quality of city life and increase the quantity of green spaces, the “National Strategic Plan for the Development of Urban Egypt 2052”, constitutes a revival of Cairo 2050 and includes the clearing of slums and the removal of inhabitants of unplanned areas either by forcible eviction or by giving them paltry compensation totally insufficient to assure them a decent home elsewhere. Al-Warraq island is one of the projects Madbouly has set his sights on, part of an overall plan for the Egyptian islands aimed at scrapping their traditional agricultural and riverside characters in favour of real-estate and tourism projects. Al-Warraq has been the scene of violent clashes between inhabitants and police over attempts at forced eviction, a tactic which conflicted with the legal right of residents to remain on the land where they have lived for decades and which reinforced suspicions that the government’s projects are deliberately targeting the poor.

Another project which clearly reveals the same tendency is the creation of a business and financial centre in the new administrative capital as well as one in 6^th of October City (Gizeh governorate), where billions of Egyptian pounds have been invested in gigantic tower-blocks designed to house multinational firms or government institutions while huge sectors of society are suffering economic hardship. Similarly, in the name of a project called “Extension of Green Spaces” huge residential zones are being evacuated and transformed into recreational areas.

An immovable Prime Minister

Since Sissi took power, Mostafa Madbouly holds the record for longevity in office, nor was this his first: for six months previously he held concurrently the functions of Housing Minister and Prime Minister for a period of six months while at the same time, and still today, sitting on the board of directors of the Arab International Bank (of Tunisia).

In recent years the media have regularly called for the dissolution of the government and openly criticized the Prime Minister. At the same time, insistent rumours have circulated to the effect that he was to be replaced by General Kamel Al-Wazir, currently Transport Minister and formerly head of the Armed Forces Engineers. Indeed Madbouly did submit his resignation in June 2024, but a few days later was tasked with forming a new cabinet. Several factors explain his continuation in the post. First of all, Sissi’s present ambition is an urban planning project par excellence, one which rests upon the renovation of poor neighbourhoods, on the development of new plots of land and their sale to investors in order to make financial profits but also to transform the Cairo cityscape into something similar to the capitals of the Gulf monarchies. And this is what Madbouly is achieving with his plans.

Now it is important to stress that the latter has no great financial ambitions. His professional career shows that he prefers to put his scientific mind and vast economic experience to good use and have his projects accepted and carried out by the country’s rulers. He had already tried this with Gamal Mubarak, but Mubarak senior had vetoed it. He had refrained from putting his ideas to the Muslim Brotherhood because he was well aware of the political confusion that prevailed at the time and that the Brothers would not last long in power, and that soon he would be able to present his projects to a military government which shared his objectives. Under a military regime, the presence of civilian officials who are docile and obedient, like Mabdouly, constitute an indispensable prop for the stability of the regime and for moving beyond planning to actual realisation. Especially as this Prime Minister does not object to changes in his plans, such as the replacement of green spaces - an integral part of Cairo 2050 - by tower blocks in order maximize the economic returns in keeping with Sissi’s wishes.

In this connection it should be noted that originally there was no intention to displace Cairo’s historic cemeteries, rather they were to be turned into green spaces. But in the end the remains of the dead were moved outside the city limits with no objections from the Prime Minister.

Ultimately, Mabdouly’s successive stances show that he is unconcerned about his own reputation and takes in his stride the fact that the President of the Republic sidesteps responsibility and shifts it onto him. This occurred in particular on 14 June 2023, when Sissi visited the Al-Buhayrah governorate (in the North) where he declared, in connection with the proliferation of bridge-building works across the country:

People ask me what are all the highways for? It’s a whole plan. And if you want to call someone to account, well ask Madbouly. He’s the one who handles urban planning. He wanted to carry out all those projects earlier, but he couldn’t.

Nor does the Prime Minister resent businessmen taking the floor before he does at official conferences, such as happened at one dealing with a partnership with the Talaat Mustafa Group (TMG), property development specialists, in July 2024.

At the end of the day, Mostafa Madbouly is a silent architect who is playing a key role in the transformation of urban planning in Egypt. In some ways he brings to mind the ministers of the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt: the country’s rulers cannot do without him, nor do they fear him, because he works with all his strength to maintain the regime in power, to replenish the state’s coffers and facilitate governmental control. Madbouly has adapted himself to all the regimes in power since he has held office, he knew when to step forward and when to step back, how to go along with political changes in his country.

Under President Sissi, Madbouly has become one of the main pillars of the realisation of the regime’s ambitious vision for the development of infrastructures and grandiose urban projects, and it’s just too bad if these are carried out at the expense of social justice and the rights of the poor. The years to come will tell whether he is capable of continuing to play this complex role under a regime that requires both loyalty and flexibility, and to keep on acting as a central and indispensable figure for the realisation of this vision of Egypt’s future.

Translated by Noël Burch.