SOCIAL Democratic Liberal Party leader Sitiveni Rabuka has put the blame on certain iTaukei business owners on the downfall of National Bank of Fiji (NBF) – for failing to repay their debts.
He highlighted the issue while responding to questions on the assistance to iTaukei businesses if the party wins the 2018 General Election during a campaign rally in Narere on Monday night.
Speaking in iTaukei, Mr Rabuka said there were certain programs available in past Governments to specifically assist the iTaukei, but with conditions.
He then said Government usually criticised him for the collapse of NBF, but didn’t “understand” that it was through the financial institution that the iTaukei were able to establish their businesses but later abused the system, he claimed.
However, Mr Rabuka said the problem was that a lot of these iTaukei business people didn’t repay their debts to the bank which tainted the reputation of the iTaukei.
“The problem with us iTaukei is that we think when we establish a business, its for the family and its abused,” he claimed.
Mr Rabuka said for other races they would sacrifice for the success of their businesses but it was a different case for the iTaukei.
FijiFirst leader Voqere Bainimarama had earlier claimed that Mr Rabuka was the reason behind the loss of certain commercial properties that belonged to the iTaukei and the collapse of NBF.
