JusticeE may have come 12 years late for the 14 founders of Matua Taxis in Nabua, Suva but when it finally did, the victory cry was a small celebration of free flowing kava and lovo, prayers of thanksgiving and a good measure of relief that what was taken away from them had finally been returned.
The win over their opponents, Tiko Kece Taxis and Hire — bittersweet because out of the 14 founders, only eight were left to see this day — saw biblical parallels being drawn with the battle between David and Goliath.
“We must always be thankful because without Goliath, there would have been no David,” Matua Taxis board chairman Apisai Vasuturaga told The Fiji Times at their “reclamation” celebrations last week as they re-took possession of their Nabua taxi base after winning their court case against Tiko Kece.
“This is the victory of David. This is David winning that great battle.”
After ricocheting for 12 years within the corridors of the Suva High Court, their case was finally heard and the ruling, made in April this year, was in their favour.
The Court ordered Tiko Kece Taxis co-founders Lomaca Baleilevuka and Ifereimi Kubukawa to pay $300,452.29 to the trustees and co-owners of Nabua Matua Taxis and Nabua Matua Hire and to also pay pre- and post-judgment interest of eight percent a year.
They were also ordered to immediately return any business computers, radio telephone motherboard, licensed taxi and licensed hire permits belonging to Nabua Matua Taxis.
Mr Baleilevuka and Mr Kubukawa had been part of Matua Taxis’ 14 founding members in 2004.
Matua claimed that they took over the company’s management and assets, including taxis, taxi permits and number plates, using them to start the Tiko Kece Taxis business.
In 2012, after a series of heated arguments between the now bitter rivals, Matua Taxis took the matter to court.
“Our initial case was against Mr Baleilevuka and how he was using money and assets without the approval of the board,” Mr Vasuturaga said.
“But the case dragged on for 12 years because of so many processes. At one time, they wanted to reverse the scenario — for them to become the appellant and for us to become the defendant. And that was struck out by the court because our case was already before the courts.”
In that time, however, the assets taken by Mr Baleilevuka and used by Tiko Kece Taxis were still registered to Matua Taxis, Mr Vasuturaga said.
Traffic infringements, said to be in the tens of thousands of dollars, incurred by vehicles carrying those number plates, were billed back to Matua Taxis.
Mr Vasuturaga claimed that Matua Taxis’ position was further weakened by Mr Baleilevuka’s close association with the FijiFirst government and leadership.
The lean years turned into a daunting period of uncertainty and shaky convictions until the ruling of 30 April.
By last month and in accordance with the orders of Justice Samuela Qica, 12 LH (Land Hire) number plates were returned to Matua Taxis and the founders finally set foot inside the taxi base where it all began for them 20 years ago.
“We just give thanks to God,” Mr Vasuturaga said.
“You know, many would have given up in those 12 years, but we depended on God and finally, the truth has spoken. So now that we have taken our LH number plates back, we got new cars for them and since we’re launching them today, we wanted to do it here at our original place of business,” he said of their wooden booth at Service Lane in Nabua, a few yards away from the Tiko Kece Taxis base.
“This base was where we founded Matua Taxis in conjunction with the Nabua Secondary School Matua Program. So it was the pioneer vocational students of the Matua Program that built this base. Then later on we extended it.”
Mr Vasuturaga said their claims against their rivals were not over yet.
“A few more civil cases are coming. We lost income from those 12 LH plates so just imagine the number of years that we have missed and somebody else had been receiving money from it,” he said.
“The reason we had formed this taxi company was so that we could all be our own boss and we all equally share from the benefits of the business, not just one person benefitting,” Mr Vasuturaga said.
“Now that our assets are coming back to us, we are able to move forward again with that original intention and this time, we have more vehicles and more drivers. This is the way we iTaukei do business, we help each other and share equally. It’s not about just one person controlling everything and taking the cream of the gains.”
“So moving forward, we want to bring accountability and transparency into the business and be accountable for everything. From waiting all these years, we’ve really learnt a lot and we just give thanks to God. We stood for the truth and in the end, truth prevailed.”
Matua Taxis now has a fleet of over 60 taxis and hire cars.
