PARAMOUNT Chief of Gaubata, North Guadalcanal, Chief John Richard Saketala has called on people who want to purchase land to be cautious when dealing with people who call themselves landowners.
He said people must be very careful and need to find out if that individual who claims to be a landowner has valid proof on the ownership of the land.
“What I mean is they must show the land title of the land they want to sell. These are things people who are thinking of buying a plot of land need to carefully consider.
“This is because registered lands have parcel numbers. Customary land on the other hand is not owned by a person but a whole lot of other family members. This is my advice for those who want to purchase land in North Guadalcanal,” said Chief Saketala.
Chief Saketala says land titles are very important because nowadays land titles clarify land ownership and is proof that someone is the rightful owner of the land they claim or are living on.
A rural fishmonger is spending more in fees annually then a retail, general and wholesale owner.
Speaking to Island Sun, a fishmonger at the Honiara central market says they pay almost $20,000 in fees annually.
In comparison to retail shops and other shops in general, the fishmonger says they are paying more than their fair share.
The issue was highlighted by a fishmonger from Central islands province who felt that the system had been unfair for struggling Solomon Islanders dwelling in the provinces.
“For instance, at the central market we pay $40 market fee daily for six days including storage fee of $20 per day. Calculating the total cost of fees, we will be spending almost $20,000 per year with our business,” he says.
Meanwhile Island Sun understands that the business licence for a home retail shop canteen owner is $840 annually whilst the business licence for a general supermarket and wholesale owner is $14,000 per year.
A local general retail shop owner will need to pay $5,600 in business licence per year whilst a foreign owner of a general retail shop is paying a total of $6,000 per year for a business licence.
“Where is the fairness in that,” said the rural fishmonger.
THE people of Guadalcanal has been urged to respect land that does not belong to them anymore. Paramount Chief of Ghaubata, Chief John Richard Saketala made this statement when asked by Island Sun newspaper on the issue of RIPEL lands on Guadalcanal.
Chief Saketala said whilst he understands that the priority for RIPEL is for the indigenous people of Guadalcanal, that doesn’t mean that descendants of the landowning groups that sold the land in the first place have the right to reclaim the lands by settling on them illegally.
Chief Saketala says even descendants of indigenous landowners must respect the agreement made by their ancestors in the first place.
“You cannot just come and reclaim the land as if it were your own. Our forefathers have sold the land in a manner and price that was respected during their time. During their time the decision made by our ancestors was made in good faith and what they believe was probably the best at that time. We must respect what had transpired before us and must uphold our dignity”, Chief Saketala says.
“Even for us as original landowners, if we want our land to come back to us, we must acquire it the right way and not just reclaim the lands anyhow we want”.
Chief Saketala says even as a landowner, he had bought the land (alongside eastern side of Alligator creek) which he now settles on and have the title to.
He says the lease agreement signed between the parties before our time was for the land to be returned as ‘crown land’ when the lease lapses. Therefore he says any land not sold by RIPEL before the agreement lapse should go back to the government. However he says whatever is between the Provincial Government, National government and RIPEL is none of his business.
‘I understand the Guadalcanal provincial government has been working with RIPEL and priority should be given to indigenous Guadalcanal people. Whoever from Guadalcanal has the finances to pay for a plot of land, by all means go ahead! What shouldn’t be encouraged is for us to go back and settle on these lands as if nothing has happened”, he said.
The issue of land on Guadalcanal is a sensitive one where even registered land being abandoned by holders from different provinces including Guadalcanalese during the ethnic crisis had been reclaimed by the so called customary landowners.
FORMER councillor of the Honiara Town Council- now Honiara City Council (HCC), Charles Lesimaoma, has appealed to the council to make it a by-law requiring all schools to have their financial report audited at the end of each year.
Mr Lesimaoma said this will allow schools to provide parents with reliable information at the beginning of each year.
The former member of the White River School’s Board of Management said all schools’ financial report should be audited before presented to parents.
Lesimaoma said parents should be fed with reliable information.
He said the council should introduce a law where all its schools should subject its financial report to an independent auditor for verification.
“Auditing financial report at the end of the year promotes good governance and accountability in schools,” Lesimaoma said.
He said during their meeting with teachers of White River School on Sunday many parents were not happy with the meeting.
Lesimaoma said the main reason is on the financial report because it has not been counter checked by anyone.
He said any cost associated with this suggested exercise should be footed by the council.
He added an audit will show, in detail, how fees and grants are used and how they improved the school’s physical and academic development.
SIGNS of infestation of Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle (CRB) are increasing around Ngella as the Agriculture Division in Central Islands Province (CIP) is yet to confirm new reported sites.
Currently affecting palm trees along Ngella’s Central, South and N/East coasts, indicators of CRB are now visible in North Ngella (Boromole) and along the Sandfly Passage at Leitongo. This is causing anxiety in the community and locals are calling on the Ministry of Agriculture (MAL) to help them address the situation.
From the Agriculture Division at Tulaghi, it is suspected that the pest must have already spread through the whole constituency.
According to MAL’s Director of Quarantine Bio-security Mr Francis Tsatsia, their Officers are yet to return to Ngella for their task in clearing CRB’s. They are waiting for the national government to pass the Budget first.
Recently Bob Macfarlane, Coordinator of Government and Palm Industries CRB Task Force, says continuous attack by Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle’s (CRB) will have an impact on the oil palm and coconut productions in Solomon Islands.
He confirmed that hundreds of coconut and palm oil trees in the country are already destroyed by the CRB’s.
“From reports received, the beetle has already spread along the north coast of Guadalcanal and has invaded north Malaita, Savo and Ngella. Currently the worst effects can be seen around Honiara but if the beetle gets to village coconut plantations then the impact on copra production will be huge reported,” said Mr Macfarlane.
Larvae and adults of CRB’s were also recently reported to be found on an Island at Russell. This has also increased the anxiety amongst locals who rely on the coconut. This includes fear for betel-nut and Sago-palm trees as well.
In a recent press statement, Macfarlane has reminded people to be aware of the serious nature of the beetle problem and the very high importance of destroying the breeding sites as it is the only tool at the moment for reducing their population.
Failure to do this will mean CRB’s population will increase and more palm trees will be destroyed.
Lawn Tennis officials and coaches discussing during one of the sessions.
BY ROMULUS HUTA
A weeklong series of workshops in sports organization management and coaching are being conducted in Honiara this week for national federation administrators and coaches.
The workshops are being led by officials from the Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) Oceania Sport Education Program (OSEP) in collaboration with officials from the National Olympic Committee of Solomon Islands (NOCSI).
The OSEP officials include Pacific Islanders accredited as Oceania Regional Master Educators, Master Educators and Educators.
OSEP is an educational program of the Oceania National Olympic Committee (ONOC) that purposely aims to provide quality sport education trainings for its affiliated national Olympic committees and its national federations to inspire more sporting participation in communities and consistently produce champions at international levels.
The workshops, which are being held at the Solomon Islands Rugby Union Federation (SIRUF) conference room at the Town Ground Rugby Stadium and NOCSI Conference room, began on Monday and will conclude on Saturday.
More than 40 participants representing more than 10 sporting federations attended the first two workshops. It is expected to double with the start of the Strength and Conditioning Coach and Management in Sporting Organisation (MiSO) courses targeted national coaches and NOCSI and NF Executive Committee and board members.
The workshops this week are being marked as a new journey for all the national sporting federations in Solomon Islands where participants are taken to a whole new level of experience in learning about development of sports at the community level and so as learn about effective ways of managing their sporting organisations.
According to an interview with SunSPORTS, the OSEP Coordinator, Sainimili Saukuru said the series of workshops the OSEP team had been delivering since last month was aimed at getting Solomon Islands prepared well ahead of the hosting of the Pacific Games in Honiara in 2023 and other future sporting events.
“The Oceania Sport Education program (OSEP) courses for administrators, team managers and coaches are to prepare toward the 2018 Commonwealth Games, 2019 Pacific Games, 2020 Olympic Games and the 2023 Pacific Games.
“The OSEP courses train locals involved in running sporting organisations to support the way sport events are conducted and how teams are managed. And also sporting organisations’ leaderships are trained on how they run their national federations, put in place strategic plans to prepare their federations for the 2023 Pacific Games.
“ONOC will work closely with NOCSI and its national federations over the next five years to build the skills and competencies of sport federations coaches and administrators to comply with the principles of good governance in sport,” Saukuru highlighted.
During the course of the week NOCSI Training and Development Commission members Shalom Akao and Morris Mai’taki will be assessed as OSEP Educator and Master Educator. The duo just returned from Fiji as part of the OSEP trainers course to build up the OSEP training team in Solomon islands. This team are targeted to run OSEP courses locally.
Meanwhile, the course facilitators for this week’s workshops include OSEP Regional Master Educators such as Lemeki Savua, Tihrani Uluinakauvadra, Geoffrey Gisane Gideon, Kinivanagi Karo, Sainimili Saukuru and Mentor Talemo Waqa. Also joining the team are OSEP Strength and Conditioning Educators Hannah Ilave and Thereseanne Daimol.
Lawn Tennis officials and coaches discussing during one of the sessions.Victor Waiia discusses a point with one of the participants.Participants undergoing intensive discussionsParticipants listening to a presenter during Monday’s session.Junior Bainivalu of the boxing federation leading a group activity for his groupA group activity for participants during yesterday’s session
THE second leg matches of the 2018 Telekom S-League championship series will continue this weekend at the Lawson Tama Stadium.
The first match for this Saturday will see Malaita Kingz FC taking on Henderson Eels FC at 2pm followed by the 4pm class between Western United FC and KOSSA FC.
With the semi-finals for the competition set for Wednesday next week, Eels will be eager to bounce back following their 4-0 loss to a young M/Kingz side last Sunday.
Matches for the competition continues this Sunday as FC Guadalcanal takes on Marist FC at 2pm while Solomon Warriors FC takes on Real Kakamora FC at 4pm.
Despite their 2-0 loss to Marist FC last Saturday, FC Guale Head Coach Martin Hiti was pleased with his boys’ performance saying it was by far their best performance so far.
“Three weeks is not enough but I’m pleased we’ve managed to work and identified a game plan for us today,” Coach Hiti told SunSPORT after their loss on Saturday.
“This is a new team for FC Guadalcanal. Our performance was good in terms of teamwork and our combination but it is our finishing which needs improvement.
“This is one of the beautiful games I’ve seen from our team so far. I mean Marist is a good side that has kept on training after the TSL season for the Oceania Champions League.
“We went for the break and managed to rebuild in three weeks and I think this is a good starter for the boys.
“It was very challenging but the boys played together as a team today. We’ll work on the areas we failed today and hope the boys can get us the result next week,” Hiti said.
Meanwhile, semi-finals for the TSL are set for Wednesday and Thursday next week.
Format for the semi-final will see the winner of Solomon Warriors FC and Real Kakamora FC taking on the winner of KOSSA FC and Western United FC while the other semi-final will be between the winner of Henderson Eels FC and Malaita Kingz FC match, and the winner of Marist FC and FC Guadalcanal match this Sunday.
Grand finals for the competition will take place Sunday next week.
THE Honiara Football Association (HFA) will announce their development plans for this year’s HFA Soccer league.
Association President Mr Baddley Alaha confirmed they will make the announcements in a media press conference this afternoon at the Lawson Tama VIP Lounge.
“HFA invites all of you to come to our media conference at Lawson Tama VIP Lounge tomorrow at
12pm,” he said.
“The purpose of the conference is to announce our plans and the HFA League for 2018.
HFA is also expected to announce the dates for the presentation and awards for last year’s league winners and the new format for this year’s soccer leagues.
“The presentation and awards for the 2017 HFA League and the start of 2018 HFA League proper will soon be announced,” the President said.
“Please just be patient with us as we are trying to address issues one at a time. The HFA league will soon adopt a new structure.
“The new structure will see only two divisions being played out by participating clubs.
“I’m working with the Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) Technical Director on how to administer the HFA new league structure.
“Under this new structure, we will have two divisions only. The Premier Division will have 18 teams and Division 1 also 18 teams.
“The detail of the new format will be announced soon,” Alaha said.
Europe-based Marcus Chan is one of the players drafted into the national
under-19 training squad.
BY ROMULUS HUTA
THE Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) technical department has named a 44-man training squad for the national under-19.
The squad was released yesterday.
In the 44-man squad, most of players were selected from the Youth Solomon Cup tournament held in January with the exception of four players namely Marist defender John Aeta, Spain-based Marcus Chan, Simon Wolfgang (Western United) and Steward Saru of Waimapuru.
Aeta is the former national under-17 captain and also a current member of the national senior side.
Chan is currently a member of the CF Cracks Academy in Valencia, Spain.
The SIFF technical department said trials will begin on March 19, which is Monday next week at 9am.
“The SIFF Technical Director and the Technical Department would like to inform all Provincial Football Associations (PFA) presidents and coaches that we are calling on all selected players from each PFAs to attend the national under-19 trials,” a statement from SIFF said.
Players named in the training squad are expected arrive in Honiara by this Sunday.
SIFF is calling on PFAs to send their players based in the provinces to Honiara for the trials.
The statement said PFAs will be responsible for meeting the transport costs of players based in the provinces – to and from Honiara.
SIFF also calls on the training squad members to bring own training gears which include boots (2 pairs), running shoes, extra socks and shin pads.
“All players must be reminded that the trial period starts as soon as the training camp starts –
19th March 2018.
“Training and trials goes for only one week – 19th March 2018 to 25th March 2018.
“All players will be observed during the one week training/trial period.
“Players must be in their best behaviour and must perform throughout the training/trial period.
“Any player(s) who does not meet the requirements during the training and trial period will not be selected.
“Players please note that the coaches and technical team can kick players out on the spot or even 2-
3 days after the training and trial period has started.
“Players who chew beetle-nut or found smoking will be kicked out immediately,” the statement said.
The national under-19 team will participate in this year’s Oceania Under-19 world cup qualifiers.
The qualifiers will take place in Tahiti from August 5 to 18.
The top winners from the qualifiers will progress to the 2019 FIFA Under-20 World Cup.
The dates for the Under-20 world cup is not finalised yet by the world governing football body and so as the host country.
Two countries namely Poland and India have submitted formal bids to host the tournament.
FIFA is expected to announce the successful host after the FIFA Council meeting this Friday (Saturday Solomon Islands Time) in Bogotá, Colombia.
The National under-19 training squad
Goalkeepers:
Darwin AOMATANGI (RenBell), Junior GATU (Guadalcanal) Junior John MATA (Honiara)
Defenders:
Henfred (Malaita), Phillip POLANCOS (Makira), Richard KERA (Western), Stanford CLEMENT (Honiara), Collin LOKATA (Malaita), Raymond DAUABU (Malaita), Absolom WAWANE (Malaita), Junior AENGARI (Honiara), Sebastian AKORIU (Guadalcanal), Casper MAMAE (RenBell), Stanley RYNIKER (Honiara), Anthony RASAU (Western) and John AETA (Marist FC)
Midfielders:
William KOMASI (Malaita), Nashville HITE (Western), Clinton OTOI (Honiara), Hubert AU (Honiara), David KOESI (Guadalcanal), Simon WOLFGANG (Western Utd), Don KEANA (Honiara), Lino HOU (Guadalcanal), Alfred KAFU (Malaita), Mathew FAGONO (Malaita), Junior BAKO (Honiara), Henry RAMO (Malaita), Colton LUI (RenBell), Frank KABUI (Malaita), Martin DEPORES (Guadalcanal), Clayton MENAPA (Honiara), Milton MEKE (Central), Ian TUTU (Honiara), Steward SARU (Waimapuru), Marcus CHAN (Spain), Alfred Jr TAGINI (Makira)
Forwards:
Charles MANI (Malaita), Ali MEKAWIR (Honiara), Densley GESENI (Guadalcanal), Steve MANE (RenBell), Steve SIWA (Makira), Marlon NONONE (Real Kakamora) and Junior DAVID (Western).
Europe-based Marcus Chan is one of the players drafted into the national under-19 training squad.
Batram Suri is one of the candidates in the running for the under-19 head coaching role
BY ROMULUS HUTA
Batram Suri is one of the candidates in the running for the under-19 head coaching role
THE coaches for the national under-19 and the under-16 teams will be decided by the Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) this week.
A meeting that is proposed to take place either today or tomorrow will decide the appointment of candidates for the head coaching roles for the under-19 and the under-16, the SIFF technical department confirms yesterday.
The meeting is expected to be convened by the SIFF technical director Felipe Vega-Arango Alonso for SIFF officials and representatives from the football coaches association.
Several candidates are in the running for the coaching roles for both under-19 and the under-16 squads.
For the national under-16 side, the current senior assistant coach and former national rep Stanley Waita is one of the candidates who is in the running for the head coaching role.
Regarding the under-19, Batram Suri and others are in the running for the head coaching role.
The naming of the coaches is part of preparations toward this year’s respective Oceania championships for both the under-19 and the under-16.
The Oceania Under-19 world cup qualifiers will be held in Tahiti in August while the Oceania Under-16 world cup qualifiers will be held in Honiara in September.
The top two winners from each of the qualifiers will progress to the 2019 FIFA Under-20 and the FIFA Under-17 World Cups respectively.
The host nations of both world cups are yet to be determined by the world governing football body.
Two countries namely Poland and India have submitted formal bids to host the under-20 world cup while three countries namely Rwanda, Kenya and Singapore are in the running to host the under-17 world cup.
FIFA is expected to announce the successful hosts for both tournaments after the FIFA Council meeting this Friday (Saturday Solomon Islands Time) in Bogotá, Colombia.
