‘I gonna get drunk and high’: Fiji ministers deny sex and drug texts on trip

An alleged leak of intimate messages between two ministers threatens to bring down the government of the largely Christian island.

Leaked messages suggest Aseri Radrodro and Lynda Tabuya had a sexual encounter on a trip to meet Australian MPs. Picture: The Times

Fiji’s government is close to collapse after only a year in power, riven by a sex scandal involving two cabinet ministers that has rocked the heavily Christian islands.

Sitiveni “Rambo” Rabuka, the prime minister, a Sandhurst-trained former army colonel who led a coup in 1987, has sacked education minister Aseri Radrodro, who is alleged to have had a drug and alcohol-fuelled affair last year with Lynda Tabuya, a former beauty queen, who is the minister for women and children.

Text messages allegedly exchanged between the pair and published online by the Fijileaks website suggest that the encounter happened on a trip to meet Australian MPs in Melbourne in August. The texts have been dismissed by Tabuya as “fake news”, while Radrodro has not responded to questions from The Times and other media.

He allegedly texted Tabuya in the early hours of the morning in her room at the Windsor Hotel while his wife, a prominent Fijian lawyer, slept in his room on the same floor. There are references to getting drunk and using marijuana during “brutal” sex.

Aseri Radrodro and Lynda Tabuya in parliament. Picture: Parliament of Victoria/The Times

Fijileaks also claimed that revealing images of Tabuya had been found on Radroro’s phone.

Rumours of an affair surfaced in September but were denied by both, with Rabuka, the prime minister, saying he was satisfied with their explanations.

However, Radrodro was sacked on Friday for “insubordination and disobedience” in relation to his responsibilities as education minister. Tabuya, a former lawyer who is reported to be separated from her husband, was demoted in October from her role as a government leader in parliament.

Radrodro’s dismissal may yet bring down the government: he is one of three MPs in the Social Democratic Liberal Party (Sodelpa), which entered a pact with Rabuka’s People’s Alliance to form a governing coalition after a deadlocked election.

Radrodro demanded on Tuesday that he be reinstated to the cabinet, adding that “a miscommunication” had led to his dismissal. He has not commented about the alleged affair.

Officials from Sodelpa are demanding that Rabuka step down as prime minister and have instructed Radrodro to remain in his ministerial office, threatening to seek to form a new government led by Fiji’s long-serving former prime minister Frank Bainimarama if Radrodro is not reinstated.

The Times