A young man has died after a vehicle he was in slammed into a power pole at Fungamisi, Vava’u.
Local Radio Waves Vava’u news broadcaster Manu Tapueluelu told Kaniva News the incident occurred on Sunday afternoon at about 4pm.
She said the deceased was believed to be the only person who was in the vehicle when the crash occurred.
Tapueluelu described the victim as “very young.”
Police have yet to release a statement about the incident.
Lord Tu’ivakanō had his case adjourned for the third time since he first appeared in court on March 26.
The former Speaker and Prime Minster appeared in court last month and is expected to reappear in court on June 25.
Reports said the noble’s legal counsel was not in Tonga when he was due to appear at a Magistrate Court.
In a separate court case, MP ‘Akosita Lavulavu and her husband former government minister and MP ‘Etuate Lavulavu had their case adjourned for the third time to June 25.
The Lavulavus appeared at the Fasi Lower Court on May 28.
Their case had been adjourned to allow for the defence to submit documents in relation to their charges.
The Lavulavus are charged with three counts each of knowingly dealing with forged documents and three counts of obtaining credit by false pretences.
This relates to a number of irregularities in an audit of the ‘Unuaki ‘o Tonga Royal Institute in 2016.
Prime Minster ‘Akilisi Pōhiva fired MP ‘Akosita from her ministerial post as a result of the case.
Scroll down to watch the video
A video of a woman dancing enthusiastically at a function attended by Tongan fans has caused strong criticism from some members of the public.
The video was uploaded to Facebook recently by Lia Moeakiola. It has since been viewed more than 65,000 times, received 603 shares and had 549 reactions.
The incident occurred during a function in an outdoor netball court.
Some comments on social media suggested the footage was captured in Tonga.
https://www.facebook.com/100004062743421/videos/1413287065483371/?t=2
Kaniva News has been unable to confirm the authenticity of the video or where it was made.
The video showed a young woman and her male partner along with few others dancing to a song by Ed Sheeran, ‘Perfect.’
At some stages she appeared irrepressible while she was being rotated and swung around by her partner. Her partner had to assist her to make sure she did not fall over.
At the end of the clip the young girl fell to the floor and after her partner helped her up she pushed him before they left the scene.
Some Tongans were overhead in the video talking and making fun of the incident.
The clip had attracted apparently two groups of viewers.
One appeared to be young people who appreciated what they described as the young woman’s “confidence” in the way how she danced, and the second group appeared to be from those who wanted to keep dignity of women’s molumalu tangutu and anganofo according to the Tongan cultural code of conduct.
One commenter on Facebook wrote in Tongan: “Tau toe sesele tautolu he kata he fanga ki’i finemui he enau fkma’ama’a’i pehe’i kinautolu ee.”
This translate into English as: “We would end up being mad when laughing at these young women for acting in a way which makes light of their dignity.”
“Koia pea faka’ohovale ‘ae ta’au ‘a e kuonga ‘i Tonga! Ne tau pehe koe kovi ‘ae longa’i fanau tupu ‘ihe ng fonua ‘i muli ta ‘oku fu’u kovi ange ‘ae kau tupu pe ‘i Tonga. Hoooiiii,” a responder wrote.
This translates into English as: “Yes. And the way how things are evolving in Tonga is shocking. We thought our youth who grew up in foreign countries were worse, but it was rather our youth who grew up in Tonga.”
The responder suggested that some one should have helped the young woman.
Some commenters were far more complimentary.
“I love this girl’s enthusiasm ? she totally spiced it up with her dance,” one wrote.
“Shes so cuuttee hahaha love her!” another said.
While Tongans in New Zealand are celebrating the Queen’s Birthday, their cousins in the kingdom are also enjoying a public holiday to mark emancipation Day.
This marks the occasion on June 4, 1862, King Siaosi Tupou I, officially abolished serfdom in Tonga.
Tupou, who was Tonga’s first Christian chief, freed commoners from being virtually owned by the chiefs under the 1862 Code of Laws.
The Code said: “All chiefs and people are to all intents and purposes set at liberty from serfdom, and all vassalage, from the institution of this law; and it shall not be lawful for any chief or person, to seize, or take by force, or beg authoritatively, in Tonga fashion, anything from any one.”
Taufa’āhau Tupou, ruler of the island of Ha’apai and a Christian convert, gained control of and united the islands following a civil war between those who had been converted by Wesleyan missionaries and those who followed traditional beliefs.
Taufa’āhau held the chiefly title of Tu’i Kanokupolu.
In 1875, he declared Tonga a constitutional monarchy and enacted laws which significantly weakened the powers of the chiefs.
Speaking at the opening of Tailulu College’s first hall, Fale Masiva, last month, His Majesty King Tupou VI said the 1875 Constitution highlighted Tonga’s emancipation and the freedom of education, freedom of expression, freedom of employment and freedom of religion.
The next public holiday in Tonga is in July 4, which marks the official birthday of King Tupou VI.
OFC/PACNEWS
Tonga have won the OFC Under 19 Football Championship Qualifier event in Rarotonga.
Tonga and Samoa fought out a tense 1-all draw on the final Match Day.
When New Zealand referee Cory Mills blew his whistle for full time emotional scenes have unfolded with Tongan players and officials marking a significant milestone in their football history.
There is nothing surprising about this Tongan team’s success especially since coach Soane Mailangi insisted from the outset that his side had a clear vision and determination to create history by becoming the first ever national team from the proud Pacific nation to win a Qualifier tournament.
By delivering on his promise the U-19 Tonga team will travel to Tahiti in August to compete in their maiden OFC U-19 Championship tournament.
It’s a major achievement by Mailangi’s players who looked to be on the verge of another disappointing campaign with less than 25 minutes remaining in their fiercely contested match against their Samoan rivals.
Knowing that a draw was enough because of their superior goal difference Tonga went into match as slight favourites before the pendulum swung as the impressive Samuelu Malo gave Samoa the lead with a powerful long range free kick after just eight minutes.
Very little separated the two sides with chances at both ends in the remainder of the first half.
Tonga came out with intent after the break while Samoa looked to be content to slow the pace of the game and rely on counter attacks.
As the chances were drying up Mailangi brought on Tuia Falepapalangi to replace Viliami Tukia in the 54th minute.
The move paid off as the Tongan number 7 hit the target just 12 minutes later with a spectacular long range drive.
The team in red kept their cool for the rest of the match to hold firm and repel Samoan ambitions.
Following the final whistle an emotional Soane Mailangi couldn’t hide his delight.
“This is the moment we have been waiting for, just like I said before, this is history, the first time for Tonga to go through.
“This U-19 age group, we have put them through a good pathway, we trusted them and today we are the team that came top of this tournament,” the Tonga coach explained.
“I’m proud of the team, proud of our technical director for his technical advice for us, this is the moment that we have been waiting for.
Although Tonga was unable to defeat Samoa, Mailangi said his side did exactly what it needed to win the tournament.
“For me a game is a game and it doesn’t matter if you win by miles or win by an inch, both is winning and today we came out on top.”
The Tonga coach believes his troops will be ready for the next challenge in Tahiti.
“Even before we left Tonga to qualify for Tahiti was in us, we worked on it and now it became a reality for us, we go to the next stage in Tahiti and we will play New Zealand, Tahiti and Papua New Guinea and I know these boys can get some more good results for Tonga,” the Tonga coach insisted.
Exiting the tournament was a bitter pill to swallow for a Samoa team which didn’t lose a game and only conceded a single goal, but despite the disappointment coach Valerio Raccuglia was not looking for excuses.
“Credit to Tonga, they never stopped and obviously they got a goal after which we couldn’t create chances to get the game back on track, but they deserve it they have done better than us.”
Raccuglia’s believes his side’s inability to finish their chances throughout the entire tournament is what ultimately cost them.
“We have missed a couple of chances and we should have been further ahead and I keep repeating the same thing, every goal is going to count and as you can see we go out because we scored one goal less than them,” the Samoa coach lamented.
“Obviously we are disappointed we came here to win and just didn’t happen, and we only have us to blame for because we had the chances to do and we didn’t, that’s football.”
In the day’s second match hosts Cook Islands and American Samoa were both eager to the victory in order to end their campaigns on a high note.
Cook Islands looked positive from the outset with James Nand causing plenty of headaches for the American Samoa defenders during the early exchanges.
The hosts’ attacking endeavours were finally rewarded in the 37th minute courtesy of Teokotai Paio.
Four minutes after the break the result looked beyond any doubt as Cook Islands won and converted a penalty through Conroy Tiputoa following a handball inside the American Samoa box.
However, to their credit the young America Samoans weren’t ready to lie down and they grabbed a goal back thanks to Roy Ledoux just two minutes later.
Desperate to repay their loyal fans in the stands the hosts regrouped after the goal to shore up their backline and hold out their opponents for a deserved 2-1 win to the delight of coach Alan Taylor.
“I thought we were very good in the first half and should have scored more than one goal, the second half got scrappy because we made two substitutions for injuries and guys played out of position but I thought overall the effort was good.”
Taylor says he is happy with his side’s overall performance throughout the tournament and it was important for his players to finally be rewarded for their efforts.
“There was nothing much in the first two games and we had to get a win so the boys could believe that they can win by playing the right way through passing football and their confidence going forward will be higher because of that.
“It was important for the boys to feel the experience of winning”, the Cook islands coach said.
Despite another defeat his American Samoa counterpart Tunoa Lui also heaped praise on his players.
“Unfortunately again today, Cook Islands capitalised on our mistakes and that cost us the game, but it was a well contested game and we played well and I take my hats off to the boys.
“The boys make mistake but they keep on fighting, we came here to win but unfortunately we didn’t.”
Lui insists the future looks bright for football in American Samoa.
“Something to take note of is American Samoa will not just defend, you saw throughout the three games we kept on attacking.
“It’s also a very good opportunity for our seven players who will be in Tonga for the U-17, so this is a good stepping stone to them for the next tournament”, the American Samoa coach said.
Kaniva Tonga news has a republication arrangement with PACNEWS
Tremors from a magnitude 5.6 quake were felt across Tonga’s outer island groups this afternoon.
The quake, 10 kilometres in depth, hit the area at 12.48pm.
Kathrina Fale’ovalu who described herself on her Facebook account as from Colonge, Germany and is living in Pangai, Vava’u, said she felt the quake
“I was sitting and the shaking was horizontal, Semisi was standing and did not feel it. It was a swaying,” she wrote.
“Didn’t feel it,” replied a commenter who used a Facebook name Brian J Leger Whippy.
The region has been struck by 10 earthquakes in the past month.
An earthquake of the same magnitude and depth hit the region just weeks ago.
Former Auditor General Pōhiva Tu’i’onetoa has denied claims by the Public Service Association (PSA) General Secretary that he audited a company of which she was manager and found its financial accounts in order.
Hon Tu’i’onetoa, who is now the Minister of Finance, was responding after Kaniva News published a story on Friday quoting the General Secretary Mele ‘Amanaki as saying Hon Tu’i’onetoa audited her Dairy Processing company.
In a detailed statement to Kaniva News, ‘Amanaki said: “Pohiva Tu’io’netoa, Govt Auditor General at the time, and Tiueti audited the company’s accounts for the alleged period. Pohiva presented the audit report to the Board that funds of the company was in order.”
But the Minister said in Tongan this was not true (“ta’emo’oni”) and said he was not an auditor of Dairy Processing.
He said ‘Amanaki approached him and asked for his help after a complaint was lodged with the government against her and Dairy Processing.
Hon Tu’i’onetoa said ‘Amanaki gave him some invoices and after he looked at those they appeared reliable.
The Minister also said as far as he remembered ‘Amanaki told her she had paid back or she was going to pay back the money at the centre of the allegations over the company’s finances.
He said ‘Amanaki asked him to write to the cabinet and asked it to “have mercy” on her case.
The Minister said he then wrote an appeal to the cabinet on her behalf.
Hon Tu’i’onetoa said the cabinet rejected his appeal, reprimanded him and told him not to do any audit assessment for her company.
He said it was a “Good Samaritan work” he did for ‘Amanaki and he was not paid for it.
As Kaniva News reported last week, ‘Amanaki was sacked from the dairy company after claims of financial irregularity were made to the then government.
Dairy Processing distributed locally manufactured milk products in 1990s to primary school students in Tongatapu.
The milk products were subsidised by the government through the Ministry of Labour and Commerce.
Our story on Friday was based on an editorial on Kele’a newspaper which claimed that when ‘Amanaki was manager of the Dairy Processing Co. Ltd in the 1990s the company became involved in alleged fraud.
The editorial claimed the company’s records were falsified to show milk was delivered to some schools which did not actually receive any dairy products.
It also claimed two schools were reported by the company to have been supplied with milk, but an investigation found out those schools never existed.
‘Amanaki said claims of financial irregularity had arisen because of the activities of one or two individuals.
‘Amanaki dismissed the allegations as unfounded.
For more information
PSA head rebuts Kele’a newspaper’s attacks as petition to investigate Cabinet submitted
Auckland won the inaugural Upright Access Mann Cup on Saturday, running riot to beat the Tonga New Zealand Residents 40-12.
Down 12-10 at the break, Auckland blew their opponents off the park with five unanswered tries in the second stanza, with co-captains Jordan Tuarae and Jethro Friend the key figures in the comeback.
The match was just the third time the Auckland premier side has taken the field since 2009, and was their first win in that period as well.
Playing in front of a crowd of over 1,200 at Mount Smart Stadium, the Tongan side flew out of the gates, scoring via Sione Tongia and captain Daniel Palavi to lead by 12 after as many minutes.
But the Auckland reply was swift, and helped by the introduction of Abraham Papali’i off the bench, they scored twice via Tuarae, who grubbered for himself before barging over from close range, to trail by just two after halfback Howard Brown added a conversion.
The Tongan New Zealand Residents couldn’t come close to matching Auckland in the second 40, with the hosts taking the lead three minutes after the break thanks to a try to former Junior Warrior Lafu Feagaiga.
The sin-binning of Tonga’s Saimone Makahili for repeated infringements marked the opening of the floodgates, with Auckland scoring via Cole Waaka and Corey Seator in the 10 minutes which followed, before Feagaiga grabbed his second and Papali’i scored a rampaging effort from 30 metres out.
Glenora Bears speedster Simon Luafalealo finished the scoring at an even 40 with five minutes left on the clock.
Auckland coach Grant Pocklington said despite his side’s sluggish opening few minutes, confidence had remained high.
“We knew Tonga had enjoyed all the ball early on. We had one set in the first 12 minutes. In the first half we had just six sets. So all we needed was possession,” Pocklington said.
“Tonga were always going to come out pretty hard. They had a lot of passion and pride. But to go 12-0 down and get ourselves back into the game was pleasing.”
Auckland 40 (Jordan Tuarae x2, Lafu Feagaiga x2, Cole Waaka, Corey Seator, Abraham Papali’i, Simon Luafalealo tries; Howard Brown 4 goals) def. Tonga NZ Residents 12 (Sione Tongia, Daniel Palavi tries; Willie Stowers 2 goals). At Mt Smart Stadium.
Maori & Toa can’t be split in U20 thriller
A last-minute penalty rescued a draw for the Auckland Maori U20 against Toa Samoa Invitational U20, in the curtain-raiser at the 2018 Upright Access Mann Cup.
Samoa opened the scoring at Mt Smart Stadium on six minutes, via powerful prop forward Lene Neemia, but found themselves down 16-6 at the break as the local side struck three times, through fleet-footed half Taane Paki, centre Iloa Ma’afu-Roberts and forward Isaiah Vagana.
Three minutes into the second period the Samoans had a golden chance to claw their way back, after winger Setu Tu burst 70 metres down field, but they couldn’t execute and the gap remained 10 at the final 20 minutes approached.
At that point Toa captain Dylan Tavita took matters into his own hands, stepping his way through for a try, although it was quickly cancelled out by Casey Smith’s four-pointer at the other end.
Tries to Johnny Falelua-Malio and Jachim Tumu-Makara – both of which were converted by Tavita – gave the Samoans a 24-22 lead, which they looked set to win the game on, before a penalty with a minute left gifted Smith with a kick in front of the posts to tie the game.
Toa Samoa Invitational 24 (Lene Neemia, Dylan Tavita, Johnny Falelua-Malio, Jachim Tumu-Makara tries; Dylan Tavita 4 goals) Auckland Maori 24 (Taane Paki, Illoa Ma’afu-Roberts, William Pompey, Casey Smith tries; Casey Smith 4 goals). At Mt Smart Stadium.
An American company claims Tonga has the seventh highest level of diabetes in the world and third highest in the Pacific.
World Life Expectancy cites what it says are World Health Organisation statistics to back the claim.
It says the kingdom has what it calls an “age adjusted death rate” of 105.8 deaths per 100,000 people.
Fiji is listed in the company report as having the highest death rate at 187.9 deaths per 100,000 people, with Kiribati fourth with 121.3 death per 100,000 people.
The western Pacific has one of the highest rates of diabetes in the world.
According to the World Health Organisation’s figures for 2016, Tonga has an average rate of 21.9% of the population suffering from diabetes.
Diabetes was more common in women and had risen from about 10% of the population in 1980 to more than 25% by 2014.
The WHO report had no figures on mortality rates.
As Kaniva News reported earlier this year, there have been claims that international figures on diabetes are flawed.
The Journal of Diabetes reported in 2016 that an error had occurred when international health authorities were testing for diabetes in Samoa, Fiji and Tonga. This led to figures being doubled.
Dr. Sione Latu told Kaniva News the original report based on this research said there was a 34.4% prevalence of diabetes in Tonga, but this was revised down to 17.7%.
For more information
Diabetes country profile Tonga
President defends $50,000 TFD owed him; Ministry says dialysis data is wrong
A Police officer has been charged with reckless driving causing death, driving under the influence of alcohol and driving a vehicle with no number plate.
The 51-year-old officer was off duty when he allegedly crashed into a vehicle driven by a 37-year-old man from Fangaloto last night Friday June 1 at around 11:15pm in Kolofo’ou, Police commissioner Steve Caldwell said.
The victim was rushed to hospital where he died two hours later, the Commissioner said.
The accused was driving a UT Ford van heading north on Vaha’akolo rd before he failed to give way at a roundabout crashing into the driver’s door of a white car driven by the victim.
The arrested officer is in custody while investigation continues.
