PHOTO: A bus from Lapaha hit a van after its driver attempted a U-turn on Taufaʻāhau Rd. Photo/Supplied
A 54-year-old man from Haveluloto was charged by Police for careless driving after causing a crash with a bus when he attempted a U-turn in his van on Taufaʻāhau Rd early this week.
The unidentified driver was heading westward along Taufaʻāhau Rd and he was followed by the bus.
The driver of the van took a sudden U-turn before the bus struck, Sia Adams from Police Communication Unit at Longolongo said.
The incident happened at a corner of two roads at Haʻateiho village and the bus was from Lapaha .
PHOTO: The house in Tofoa that attacked by Tupou College students in 2013. The landlord Kepueli ʻIoane was an ex-student of Tupou College.
Tonga’s Supreme Court has jailed three Tupou College students for their part in the Tofoa riot in 2013.
Three Tupou College students were sentenced to four-and-a-half years’ imprisonment for their involvement in the attack, which left one man in a coma and another with head injuries.
Sungalu Afuha’amango, 22, was convicted of riotous assembly, attempted arson and damaging a building.
He was sentenced to four and-a-half years’ imprisonment. The court suspended the last 18 months of his sentence.
The court was told Afuha’amango threw a gas cylinder into the house on the night of the attack.
Siosifa Sulunga, 20, and Sitivi Taliai, 20, were convicted of riotous assembly, serious housebreaking and causing grievous bodily harm.
They were sentenced to four and-a-half years’ imprisonment. The last 21 months of their sentence have been suspended.
Afuha’amango, Sulunga and Taliai were part of a mob of more than 150 Tupou College students who attacked a house in Tofoa on July 18, 2013.
The house was occupied by a Tonga High school teacher, her children and friends who were students and former students of Tonga College.
The attack left former Tonga College student Taniela Halahuni, 22, in a coma for three months.
Daniel Jr Mahe, 14, received head and other injuries during the attack and was hospitalised for several weeks.
The Crown Prosecutor charged 151 Tupou College students over the attack.
A total of 127 of them pleaded guilty at the Magistrate Court for committing minor offences.
The remaining 24 students were charged with committing serious offences and their cases were heard by the Supreme Court.
All the students who were charged entered the house when the attack took place.
Three other students were charged and convicted of riotous assembly, serious housebreaking and causing serious bodily harm. They were sentenced to two and-a-half years’ imprisonment.
Their sentences were fully suspended on condition that two of them undertake 120 hours of community work, and one 90 hours.
A total of 15 students were convicted of riotous assembly and damaging a building and were sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.
Their sentences were suspended on condition that one of them undertake 65 hours of community work and the other 14 undertake 85 hours.
Three students were convicted of simple housebreaking and were discharged without conviction on the condition that they each pay TP$200 compensation to the owner of the damaged house.
In delivering the sentences, the Supreme Court warned that crimes involving school students should never happen again in Tonga.
If it did, the sentences may be more severe.
Legal counsels Tomasi Fakahua and Petunia Tupou represented all the accused.
The main points
Tonga’s Supreme Court has jailed three Tupou College students for their part in the Tofoa riot in 2013.
They were sentenced to four and-a-half years’ imprisonment for their involvement in the incident, which left one man in a coma and another with head injuries.
Afuha’amango, Sulunga and Taliali were part of a mob of more than 150 Tupou College students who attacked a house in Tofoa on July 18, 2013.
The three students each had part of their sentences suspended,
PHOTO: ‘Eua Police van is lifted upside down out of roadside trees in ‘Ohonua. Photo/Supplied
A police van has to be lifted out of roadside trees in ‘Ohonua, ‘Eua after it ploughed through the ditch and landed upside down few metres away from the road.
A reliable source has told Kaniva News the van careered across the road and went through the bushes before it turned and lay bottom-up.
The source said the incident happened close to a convent at ‘Eua’s capital ‘Ohonua.
No injuries were reported.
Police Communication and Media Centre in Nuku’alofa did not respond to our request for comment.
Police van at ‘Ohonua, ‘Eua has to be lifted out of trees at a roadside after it careered across the road and landed upside down few metres away from the road. Photo/Supplied‘Eua Police van is lifted upside down after it landed under trees by a roadside at ‘Ohonua. Photo/Supplied
The Tongan Government wants to establish a Royal Commission to investigate the Tongan passport scandal.
But it must wait for royal assent before the enquiry goes ahead and finances may limit how much it can do.
The Tongan government approved the proposal of a commission on April 15 at the urging of the kingdom’s former Auditor General, Dr Pohiva Tuʻiʻonetoa.
Dr Tuʻiʻonetoa is now the Police Minister.
The minister did not give the details of the terms of the commission, saying a number of factors had to be considered.
He said setting up a Royal Commission could cost TP$1 million (NZ$656,000) and this would be one factor determining the scope of the inquiry.
Hon. Tuʻiʻonetoa told Kaniva News cabinet’s decision had to be submitted to the Privy Council for royal assent.
He said cabinet believed the commission’s inquiry would help bring many answers to questions that had gone unanswered for years regarding the sale of Tongan passports.
The Tongan passport scandal
Hon. Tu’i’onetoa told Kaniva News last year that a passport scandal allegedly involving the Prime Minister’s office in 2014 was one of the two biggest he had come across in the past three years.
His claim came after audited documents leaked to New Zealand media, including Kaniva News, showed a table headed “Summary of holders of ordinary passport with no naturalisation certificate during audit period”.
A list of 12 Chinese nationals was then displayed in the table.
The documents also noted that when the auditor asked the Immigration Department to explain why Chinese nationals were being given Tongan passports without holding naturalisation certificate as the law requires, he was told “the direction was given from higher authority.”
No law
When the Auditor’s office urged the Attorney General to charge the people involved, his office said they could not do anything because there was no law that could be used to launch a prosecution.
Tongan passports were issued illegally to Asians in the 1980s. In 1999 the sale of the Tongan passports was stopped, with the government saying it had sold almost 7000 passports to Asians for almost US$40 million (TP277 million/NZ$181 million).
The termination of the sales came after ‘Akilisi Pohiva, who was then an opposition Parliamentarian, launched a lawsuit against the government for selling the passports. The government then changed the kingdom’s constitution to allow the sale.
The then king, King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV, decided the money needed to be invested overseas, saying that if it was deposited in Tonga “the government would only spend it on roads.”
The money was invested in a number of overseas funds at the suggestion of financial adviser Jesse Bogdonoff, a former Bank of America official who had been named as the king’s jester. In still disputed circumstances, most of the money that had been invested in the Tongan Trust Fund was lost.
The main points
The Tongan Government wants to establish a Royal Commission to investigate the Tongan passport scandal.
But it must wait for royal assent before the enquiry goes ahead and finances may limit how much it can do.
The Tongan government approved the proposal of a commission on April 15 at the urging of the kingdom’s former Auditor General, Dr Pohiva Tuʻiʻonetoa.
Tuʻiʻonetoa told Kaniva News the inquiry would help bring many answers to questions that had gone unanswered for years regarding the sale of Tongan passports.
PHOTO: The Prime Minister, Hon. ʻAkilisi Pōhiva and his wife Neomai in December 2014. Photo/Supplied
Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pōhiva and his wife Neomai have arrived in Auckland last Friday 17 for medical treatment, his office in Nukuʻalofa says.
Hon. Pōhiva “will undergo a routine medical check-up while he is in New Zealand, and will be returning to the country this week”, it says.
While they were in Auckland for five days Neomai will possibly undergo surgery, his office says.
“Mrs. Pōhiva has been ill and bed-ridden for some time, even during the political campaign that saw her husband voted in as a Member of Parliament last year, and later the Prime Minister of Tonga”.
The Prime Minister was expected to return to work on April 27.
PHOTO: Siaosi Pohiva denies he has multi million dollar software package
The Tongan Prime Minister’s son, Siaosi Pohiva, is taking legal action after Matangi Tonga Online and a number of other news outlets in the kingdom published a series of articles claiming he had used his influence to persuade the government to buy a multi-million paʻanga software package.
He told Kaniva News early this evening that he had contacted his lawyers in Tonga and New Zealand and they were now in the process of writing up a statement of claim.
The articles, by Sione Mokofisi, have also stung the government, which is seeking advice from the Crown Law office.
Siaosi Pohiva said the multi-million pa’anga software did not exist and he was not in a business relationship with IT consultant Piveni Piukala.
Mokofisi, who also published the allegations on Nepituno News page, has since denied that he had claimed that the Tongan cabinet had approved purchasing the software.
However, in his first article he wrote: “And the new multi-million software is now being cleared through cabinet which is to be purchased from the PM’s son and his partner.”
He also referred to the “Pohiva-Piukala consultancy.”
In a statement to Tongan media outlets dated April 16, Pohiva said he was employed as Head of the Assessment Section of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) in Fiji under the Educational Quality and Assessment Programme.
He said it had become evident that the quality of education in the region was in decline and that part of the solution was to find a way to standardise or scale exam results throughout the region.
At this stage Piveni Piukala was Head of the Information and Communication Technology programme and they worked together to find a software solution to the problem.
It was first tried on one subject in 2011 and then on four subjects the next year. In 2013 it was applied to all form seven regional exams.
The software was still being developed by Piukala, who was now a private consultant in several countries where local conditions had to be taken into consideration.
Pohiva said the story was intended to discredit his father, Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva.
The Tongan government press release quotes Piukala calling Mokofisi’s claims “a bunch of lies.”
Siaosi Pohiva wrote to Matangi Tonga Online on March 3 demanding an apology and denying Mokifisi’s claims. They did so, but followed his letter with an editor’s note saying people were entitled to express their opinions.
He wrote again on April 6, describing Mokifisi’s claims as “erroneous and misguided,” but this was not published.
The main points
The Tongan Prime Minister’s son, Siaosi Pohiva, is taking legal action after Matangi Tonga Online published a series of articles claiming he had used his influence to persuade the government to buy a multi-million pa’anga software package.
Pohiva told Kaniva News early this evening that he had contacted his lawyers in Tonga and New Zealand and they were now in the process of writing up a statement of claim.
The articles, by Sione Mokofisi, have also stung the government, which is seeking advice from the Crown Law office.
Siaosi Pohiva said the multi-million pa’anga software did not exist and denied he was in a business relationship with IT consultant Piveni Piukala.
PHOTO: Prince Ata and Lord Luani (2nd from left) with Latter-day Saint Church leader, President ‘Alavin Sika (left) and Sione and Falaetau Fine’anganofo at the Easter Sunday worship service April 2015. Photo/mormonnewsroom.org.nz
Members of the Royal Family were welcomed by the congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Nukuʻalofa 10th Ward on Easter Sunday.
Prince Ata, who was just baptised into the church in March, attended the congregation’s “sacrament meetings” and was accompanied by his brother Crown Prince Tupouto’a ‘Ulukalala and Crown Princess Sinaitakala.
A statement from the church says the service is open to anyone from the public.
“They include prayers, hymns, sermons by leaders and members from the congregation, and the ordinance of the sacrament. Meetings focus on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ”.
Honorable Lupepauʻu Taione, Epeli Taione, Lord Luani, Honorable Tevita ‘Unga, Sela ‘Unga and Member of Parliament Hon. Sēmisi Sika were among those who attended the service
About 200 Latter-day Saint and other worshipers attended the service which was led by Latter-day Saint leader President ‘Alvin Sika and Bishop Andrew Toʻimoana.
“Speakers in the service were Sione and Falaetau Fineanganofo. They both spoke on the gospel of Jesus Christ, the last few days of the Saviour’s life, and His resurrection”.
Pope Francis has elected Cardinal Mafi of the Diocese of Tonga and Niue as member of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples and the Pontifical Council.
Cardinal Mafi, 53, was among 15 cardinals the Pope has announced yesterday as members of various Vatican congregations and councils.
Cardinal Mafi takes part in the council’s decision making body deciding on matters laid out by the curia office to make sure the church’s humanitarian relief operations reach out to victims of disasters, foster charity and encourages cooperation and coordination of other Catholic organizations.
Cardinal Mafi is the youngest member of the College of Cardinals who was elevated to the cardinalate in February.
Real Tonga Airline has chartered an aircraft from Fiji Airways to replace the controversial Chinese aircraft MA60 the Tongan government has grounded two month ago.
The Real Tonga has added the twin-engine turboprop short haul regional airliner, 68-seater ATR72-600, to its fleet in an attempt to meet its passengers’ growing demand.
Matangi Tonga Online has quoted Real Tonga’s Director Tevita Palu as saying, “The sudden unavailability of the MA60 aircraft meant that we had to urgently re-adjust our fleet…”
The MA60 aircraft was returned to the Tongan government on February 8 after its lease was terminated due to the new legislation.
The Chinese aircraft is now leased out to a new Tongan company, the Royal Tongan Airline, owned by a group that involved Tonga’s Former Deputy Prime Minister Samiu Vaipulu and others.
Vaipulu claimed the MA60 would start flying domestically this month. His claim came after the Minister of Infrastructure told Kaniva News in Auckland recently Royal Tongan Airline had been given four conditions to fulfil before the MA60 was allowed to operate in Tonga.
None of those conditions had been met, the minister said.
Hundreds of members from various churches and students from Catholic schools walked about two kilometres from the Basilica of St Anthony of Padua to the royal palace in Nukuʻalofa last Friday to present the fakatūʻuta to the King.
The presentation of pigs, mats, ngatu and yams to His Majesty King Tupou VI was one of cultural activities organised to mark the elevation of Cardinal Mafi to the cardinalate on February 14 in Rome.
According to tradition, the presentation was made before any other activities organised for the celebration.
The king attended the presentation, but we understand he was sitting on his seat by the door inside the palace.
His heralds were seen sitting in the verandah of the palace, facing Cardinal Mafi and his followers who were sitting outside at the front lawn, few meters away from the palace.
Cardinal Mafi, 53, was escorted by Former Prime Minister of Tonga, Lord Sevele-‘O-Vailahi and some of the church leaders and heralds.
It was announced in February, before Cardinal Mafi’s elevation, that the Catholic church would celebrate the event after Lent and Holy Week, which ended on Easter Monday.
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Tongo, the herald who spoke on behalf of Cardinal Mafi to the king through his herald, Vakalahi, mentioned the “Lion at Mala’ekula Royal Tomb” a metaphor referring to King Tupou I, who first accepted Christianity into Tonga.
The heralds’ speeches on such occasion are poetically worded and use metaphors and figure of speech. They are intended to enhance the king’s prestige by comparing him to things such as a lion or a tower or the untouchable sky.
Tongo mentioned King Tupou I because of his acceptance of the Christianity into Tonga, a way of saying that without it there may have been no such presentationmadelast week.
Such poetical speech is also intended to show how much those presenting fakatū’uta value the significance of achievements such as those of Cardinal Mafi.
Their Majesties Queen Nanasipauʻu and King Tupou VI were in Rome while Cardinal Mafi was elevated, although only the queen attended the ceremony at the Vatican. However, Tongo expressed his excitement at the king’s presence in Rome, saying that although it was a coincidence, it was an honour for the church.
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Tongo then mentioned the “Tuku Fonua ki Langi” that was made in Pouono in 1875, the announcement by King George Tupou I that he was handing over Tonga to the protection of God and not any foreign countries. This led to the motto “God and Tonga are my inheritance.”
The royal herald, Vakalahi, acknowledged Tongo’s speech it was by calling on the person who counted the presentation to present a kava toho to Tongo. The presentation of the kava toho was a sign of acknowledgement by the king’s herald, but Tongo told the counter to return with the kava and give it to Vakalahi so he could keep it to present in future presentation at the Palace.
The fakatūʻuta was followed by a celebration at Apifo’ou College compound where a feast and Tongan dances were presented before Cardinal Mafi, their Majesties King Tupou VI and Queen Nanasipau’u.
Crown Prince Tupouto’a and Crown Princess Sinaitakala also attended, as well as Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva and some of his ministers.
The celebration was concluded with a choral performance on Sunday night at the Cathedral of Mary Immaculate in Ma’ufanga.
Crown Princess Sinaitakala Tukuʻaho performing as the central performer. Behind her is Lady Sīʻatu-Ki-Moana Vaea performing as assistant central performer. Photo/Soane Niukapu GallaherCardinal Mafi’s fakatūʻuta. Men unloading and arranging kava, pigs, mats, ngatu (tapa cloth), yams and other traditional gifts in order at the royal palace ‘s front lawn.Kailao (war dance) performed by Houma Parishioners at the Catholic’s ‘Apifo’ou College compound. Photo/ Soane Niukapu GallaherThe celebration was concluded with a choral performance on Sunday night at the Cathedral of Mary Immaculate in Ma’ufanga. Photo/Soane Niukapu Gallaher
The main points
Hundreds of people from various churches and students from Catholic schools walked from the Basilica of St Anthony of Padua to the royal palace in Nukuʻalofa last Friday to present the fakatū’uta to the King.
The presentation of pigs, mats, ngatu and yams to His Majesty King Tupou VI was organised to mark the elevation of Cardinal Mafi to the cardinalate on February 14 in Rome.
Cardinal Mafi was escorted by Former Prime Minister of Tonga, Lord Sevele ‘o Vailahi and some of the church leaders and heralds.
The fakatu’uta was followed by a celebration at Apifo’ou College compound where a feast and Tongan dances were presented before Cardinal Mafi, their Majesties King Tupou VI and Queen Nanasipau’u.
About fakatūʻuta
The custom of fakatū’uta involves a presentation of pigs, mats, ngatu (tapa cloth), yams and other traditional gifts. The presentation must be counted by another herald, who shouts out how many pigs, yams and kava have been presented. The same thing can be done for mats and the ngatu, but instead one of the women announced their sizes and amounts to the king’s heralds.
The custom is the highest presentation that can be made to the king on such occasions. It can only be performed when something of great importance has happened, such as the elevation of Cardinal Mafi by the Pope. The palace office must be informed by the presentation organisers, seeking His Majesty’s approval and availability before the ceremony can be performed.
