Ex-minister dies

Aformer Cabinet minister in the interim Government after the 2000 coup has died. Konisi Tabu Yabaki, 77, of Tiliva Village, Nakasaleka, Kadavu, died at his home at Vere Road at Laucala Beach Estate, Nasinu.

After winning a seat in the 2001 General Election he served in Laisenia Qarase’s SDL Government as Minister of Fisheries and Forests until the May 2006 election. Mr Yabaki was the Conservator of Forests in the 1970s and 1980s.

He was them named general manager of the Fiji Pine Limited from 1988 to 1999, when he contested and won a seat in the general election of that year.

The late Mr Yabaki’s second eldest son Gordon Paul Yabaki, who lives in Melbourne, Australia, spoke to the Fiji Sun about his father’s death.

“He passed away on Thursday morning,” he said.

Mr Yabaki said his father was highly respected by family members and non-family members.

“He has left behind a lot of beautiful memories and a standard that we as kids and people who were brought up around him could never achieve,” he said. The late Mr Yabaki was survived by his wife, Jimaima Vakaraici Yabaki, and his four children.

“He was a very humble person and did not talk a lot. His actions spoke for him and he was a man of God.” Mr Yabaki said his father’s last few days, he wanted to celebrate their mother’s birthday.

“We never knew that he was really sick because that’s who he was,” he said.

Edited by Epineri Vula