Success Story

Council’s campaign on CTPI helps Navuniani Leka get back his life

Sixty-six- year-old Navuiani Leka couldn’t thank the Consumer Council of Fiji enough for assisting him in getting $8,000 on his Compulsory Third Party Insurance (CTPI) claim. The payment could not have come at a better time for Mr. Leka as he was struggling to make ends meet basically surviving on the income from his small cassava plantation and the meager support his family could offer. In October 2008, Mr. Leka was hit by a van while hailing a cab for his friend in front of their church in Nasinu. The van, which was reversing, hit him hard on the hip and sent him flying a few yards before hitting the
ground. According to Mr. Leka, the van driver was careless and did not use his rear vision mirror while he was reversing his vehicle. What made it worse was that the driver did not bother to stay back to help Mr. Leka get to a medical center or a hospital. The driver just peeped out of the window, said sorry and drove off while Mr. Leka was still lying on the road struggling to get up. Finally, his friends and a few pedestrians helped him get off the road and took him the Colonial Memorial War Hospital (CWM) in Suva for medical examination where he was informed by the doctor that had a bone injury which would stay with him for the rest of his life; making it difficult for him to work. The doctor further advised him to report the matter to the police so that the driver was taken to task for his carelessness. For almost
two years Mr. Leka was given a run around by the police with false promises that his case was being investigated. With his meager income from massaging people and selling cassava from his small backyard plantation due to the accident,Mr. Leka had to scrape for every little penny to survive.
His daughters were of very little help financially as they themselves faced financially difficulties and had large families to support. Frustrated and disappointed with life, Mr. Leka heard about Council’s CTPI campaign through an advertisement on the radio and with the help from his priest he lodged a
complaint. Council immediately contacted the insurance company and mediated his case. Within weeks he received his cheque of $8,000. Although this compensation will not replace Mr. Leka’s loss of income and have injuries, it will provide some relief from being entirely dependent on his family for financial support. Council’s campaign Who Pays, Who Profits, Who Losses was launched in November 2009 in a bid to highlight problems on CTPI laws and seek a fair deal for CTPI consumers and accident victims. It is funded by our European Union project on “Strengthening Consumer Rights in Fiji and Eliminating
Unfair Trade Practices through Advocacy and Consumer Protection Laws”. To date we have received 21 complaints.