By Alfred Sasako
THOMAS Tome Siata is blind. He is looking for where to stay after the Honiara City Council has decided that where his hut stands “is dangerous and risky with big trucks turning right on the roadside where his hut is.
It was around 2007 that Thomas Tome Siata settled next to Top Timber at Ranadi. And settled he did.
Top Timber Proprietor, John Abba, who moved into the area around the same time allowed the man to stay on rent-free. In the ensuing years, Siata who comes from Ato village in the Baegu/Asifola area of North Malaita, decided to build himself a small timber hut which he called home, using timber he collected from the Top Timber yard.
This week, Siata, who appeared to have been blind from birth, was told the “bad” news. He had to move out as a result of a letter from the Honiara City Council which informed Top Timber that the roadside hut had to be removed or the company would face a hefty fine.
“Sorry Thomas but you have to move out. It is for your safety and it is the Council’s decision. It was good that in all the years you stayed in our area, nothing happened to you,” Mr Abba told Siata.
Mr Abba pledged $5, 000 towards materials for Mr Siata’s new home, just where he (Mr Siata) does not know.
Asked whether he had any relatives in Honiara, Mr Siata said yes. “I have three brothers, but I never saw them,” he said.
When Island Sun asked him whether he would like to go home to Malaita, he said, no. “I have no one to go back to,” he said.
“All I want is to find a safe place where I could stay and some help to find a place where I could build a small hut,” he said.
