Sogi residents who agreed to relocate to Tafaigata three years ago say they are still waiting for government leaders to fulfil their election promises.

Vaigalepa Fepuleai, 73, who currently resides on land in Tafaigata as part of a deal negotiated by the Samoa Land Corporation (SLC) in 2020, told the Samoa Observer in an interview last week that they are still waiting for the former and current government to fulfil their promises in relation to their new settlement. 

She said that they feel they do not have the freedom to do what they want in their own homes in Tafaigata because of strict conditions set by the SLC.

As an example, Mrs. Fepuleai alleged that SLC staff went around to their new homes and issued warning letters when their children played volleyball in the afternoons.

"And these warning letters are as simple as us not being allowed to play volleyball in front of our own homes as if we're not paying for the land," she told this newspaper last Wednesday. "If there are also fights amongst us and our neighbours or small fights between our own children, they also warn us as if we're not living in our own homes.

"We don't feel free to live and do whatever we want on these lands which we are paying lease for and whenever we do something so little, they come and warn us which is so pathetic, and it makes us feel like we're not Samoans. 

"We were originally forced out of our own homes [at Sogi] back then."

Mrs. Fepuleai said since their relocation from Sogi to Tafaigata in 2020, she had been living with her three children and over 20 grandchildren on two acres of land. Her family pays SAT$130 per month to the SLC as land lease fees, which she admitted only added to her family's financial burden since their relocation. 

Over 10 families were relocated from Sogi to Tafaigata and now reside behind the Samoa Fiafia amusement park. This excludes other Sogi families who were also relocated to other areas of Tafaigata and other villages.

According to the former Sogi resident, the Fa’atuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (FAST) administration, upon entering office after the 2021 General Election also made promises to them, which the grandmother says are yet to be fulfilled two years on.

"The word we're holding onto was during the campaign period in 2021 when they said we will live free [on the land] without having to pay once they came into power. That was our hope to overcome these challenges but nothing happened since.

"We don't want anything in return, we just want to live freely through these agreements. The land we are living on right now is too small for us that we squeeze in with all our grandchildren and our children but we have no other choice.

"We try our best to live according to their [SLC] policies and it's making us feel stuck in our own land, which again, we are paying for so what's the use of paying rent when we're not allowed to do even the smallest things we want to feel happy and normal when doing."

Mrs. Fepuleai's concerns were also echoed by one of her 43-year-old daughters, Leti Fepuleai, who lives next to her mother with her husband and four children.

She said that a 10-year lease agreement had been extended to 20 years which they thought was too long considering their struggles to find money to pay for the monthly land rental leases. 

The daughter said her husband and her two sons are the breadwinners in their house, but she stressed that even their salaries are not enough to pay for the lease, as they also have water and electricity bills to settle, on top of their children's school expenses. 

Attempts by the Samoa Observer to contact the SLC since last Thursday for comment, including its Chief Executive Officer, Ulugia Petelo Kavesi have been unsuccessful.