Former Afghan Communications Minister Working As Pizza Deliverer In Germany

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Sayed Sadaat, a former government minister in Afghanistan now works as a pizza deliverer in the German town of Leipzig – and he’s even proud of it.

“I like my current job, because as I’m new here I can explore Leipzig with my cycling,” Sayed Sadaat told Israeli television broadcaster Kan in an interview which aired Monday evening.

Earning 15 euros an hour, The 50-year-old Saadat wears a ubiquitous orange coat and big square backpack and spends six hours daily transporting meals via bicycle for Lieferando, a German subsiduary of Just Eat. His pay cheque just about covers his expenses, which includes 420 euros for rent.

Mr Saadat said: “There is no shame in the job at all. Work is work.If there is a job, it means there is public demand… Someone has to do it.”

Sadaat is a graduate of Oxford University and holds two masters degrees in IT and telecommunications. Since then, he has built a 23-year-long career working for more than 20 companies in 13 different countries, which includes employment as a technical adviser to Afghanistan’s communication and information technology ministry from 2005 to 2013. He was also the chief executive officer of Ariana Telecom in London from 2016 to 2017.

In 2016 he joined the Afghan government, serving as communications minister until 2018 but then he got fed up with the corruption and left the government.

“When doing the job as a minister there was a difference between the president’s close circle and myself,” Sadaat told AFP. “Their demands were for private benefit, I wanted the money for government projects to be implemented properly. So I could not fulfill their demands and then they tried to push me, put pressure on me from the president’s side.”

With the security situation in Afghanistan deteriorating in the past year, Sadaat joined some 210,000 Afghans who have sought asylum in Germany since 2015. As a dual Afghan-British citizen, he made to move to Germany at the end of 2020 before Brexit made it no longer possible for Britons to obtain residency in the EU without conditions such as an offer of employment. However due to his poor German he could not find a job in his field. Now he studies German four hours a day in order to acquire the language skills necessary to attain a job in his technology field.

Watching the situation unfold over the past two weeks in Afghanistan, he said, has been disturbing.

“It is very sad to see my countrymen in a problem, in fear, and running and leaving their country,” Sadaat told Kan. “I hope the situation will come back to normal.” However he advised Western governments to maintain ties with the Taliban-led government.