September
EIGHT drowning cases this month highlighted the need for more vigilance by family and community leaders. Among the victims were two teenage brothers and a three-year-old child. The total number of people who had drowned throughout the year to the end of September was 32 which was five more than for the same period last year. Also capturing headlines was an incident at Ratu Kadavulevu School where differences between students and the principal resulted in the Education Ministry closing the school and 16 students being suspended. The decision caused an uproar with parents questioning the decision by the ministry.
SEPTEMBER 1
■ THE Education Ministry closes Ratu Kadavulevu School this week as a safety measure following a protest staged by a group of students at the school premises where 109 boarding students refused to attend classes.
SEPTEMBER 2
■ DEFENCE, National Security and Policing Minister Inia Seruiratu said a Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) was being set up to only report to the Police Commissioner, Defence Minister and Prime Minister.
SEPTEMBER 3
■ NATIONAL Federation Party leader Prof Biman Prasad quizzed Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum in Parliament about Fiji Airways’ financial reports. The NFP leader claimed a staffer had spent four hours at the Registrar of Companies Office and only managed to return with three reports. Mr Sayed-Khaiyum had said if Prof Prasad had “bothered to scrounge up $10.90, he could easily obtain Fiji Airways’ financials dating back to its date of incorporation as required by the Companies Act”.
SEPTEMBER 4
■ ATTORNEY-GENERAL Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said Government would go back to Parliament to ask for more money once the $100 million COVID-19 unemployment allocation channelled through FNPF runs out.
SEPTEMBER 5
■ TWO more people tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the number of confirmed cases to five. Health Ministry acting permanent secretary Dr James Fong said both patients were males, aged
55 and 22 arrived on a repatriation flight from India on August 27
SEPTEMBER 6
■ JITENDRA Naidu, the Western Charity Alliance executive director, says violence cases and criminal activities are on the rise in certain communities in Nadi because of stress brought about by unemployment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
SEPTEMBER 7
■ MORE than 1000 plants believed to be marijuana were uprooted and bullets of dried leaves tested positive to be marijuana were seized from five different raids in Kadavu. Chief operations officer Assistant Commissioner of Police Abdul Khan said more than 1.5 tonnes of marijuana plants had been uprooted and destroyed in Kadavu.
SEPTEMBER 8
■ HEALTH Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete said Government had pumped in $34.76 million over the past five years into the free medicine scheme, and last year alone about $5.84m was spent.
SEPTEMBER 9
■ HEALTH Ministry permanent secretary Dr James Fong announced Fiji’s sixth border quarantine COVID-19 case after a 64-year-old female who arrived on a repatriation flight from New Delhi, India, tested positive.
SEPTEMBER 10
■ AUDITOR-GENERAL report of 2018-2019 stated the Fiji Roads Authority (FRA) “has not brought to account” $28 million payable to the municipal councils and $44m received from municipal councils.
SEPTEMBER 11
■ REGISTRAR of Political Parties Mohammed Saneem announced the National Federation Party could face suspension if it failed to rectify its accounts after anomalies were found in the party’s 2018 audited report.
SEPTEMBER 13
■ THE Fiji Independent Commission against Corruption warned the public to be wary of scammers trying to sell land plots at River Rd settlement in Narere and Millennium settlement in Nausori.
SEPTEMBER 14
■ SIXTEEN students of Ratu Kadavulevu School suspended by the Education Ministry may not sit for their term-end examinations.
SEPTEMBER 15
■ NINE men accused of breaching curfew orders in April walked free after the prosecution withdrew all charges against them.
SEPTEMBER 16
■ FIJI ranked among other countries with the highest cases of violence against women and girls, Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Minister Mereseini Vuniwaqa said. She said 72 per cent of women had been affected by some form of violence in their lifetime while 64 per cent of women were abused by their intimate partners.
SEPTEMBER 17
■ THE Health Ministry warns Fijians should expect a shortage of medication and pharmaceuticals because of difficulties in procuring supplies from overseas suppliers because of COVID-19.
SEPTEMBER 18
■ THE Education Ministry said it spent over
$220 million to help rebuild schools four years after Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston made landfall in Fiji.
SEPTEMBER 19
■ TWO brothers Shivnil Singh, 17, and Shalveen Singh, 16, who skipped school and went swimming with friends in Dreketi, Lautoka lost their lives in an alleged drowning incident.
SEPTEMBER 22
■ “APART from wreaking havoc on a global scale, COVID-19 will also make it “challenging” for university graduates to find a job,” University of Fiji acting vice-chancellor Prof Shaista Shameem cautioned.
SEPTEMBER 23
■ A THREE-YEAR-OLD died in the Wailoku River, the eighth drowning victim this month.
SEPTEMBER 25
■ OPPOSITION Leader Sitiveni Rabuka said there was widespread perception that the wellbeing and future of the people of Fiji was governed by unelected allies of the Government.
SEPTEMBER 26
■ REGISTRAR of Political Parties Mohammed Saneem gives the National Federation Party 21 days to rectify errors and furnish its annual audit accounts.
SEPTEMBER 27
■ THE Social Democratic Liberal Party management board finalises the list of applicants for party leader and deputy leader positions with Sitiveni Rabuka, Viliame Gavoka, Aseri Radrodro, Ro Filipe Tuisawau and Pio Tabaiwalu vying for party leader. Surprise candidate for the deputy party leader post is lawyer Filimoni Vosarogo who contests the post with Aseri Radrodro, Ro Filipe Tuisawau, Lynda Tabuya, Niko Nawaikula and Mosese Bulitavu.
SEPTEMBER 29
■ FIJIAN children are being sexually exploited and trafficked, prostituted and involved in pornography, a United Nations Pacific Socio-Economic Impact Assessment of COVID-19 report said.
SEPTEMBER 30
■ UNIVERSITY of the South Pacific vice-chancellor and president Prof Pal Ahluwalia brushed aside questions on whether they would yield to the “demands” made by the Fijian Government.
He said he understood the reduction of contributions was bound to happen because of the COVID-19 pandemic.