Lesatele Rapi

Afioga Lesatele Rapi (died December 1979) was a Western Samoan chief and politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly and served in the cabinet three times between 1967 and his death.

Lesatele Rapi
Minister of Lands and Survey
In office 1979
Preceded by	Mano Togamau
Minister of Lands
In office 1973–1976
Preceded by	Polataivao Fosi
Succeeded by	Mano Togamau
Minister for Works and Transport
In office 1967–1970
Preceded by	Frank Nelson
Succeeded by	Tupuola Efi
Member of the Legislative Assembly
In office 1957–1979
Succeeded by	Matautia Fanolua
Constituency	Vaisigano No. 2
Personal details
Died	December 1979 (aged 70)

Biography

Rapi was elected to the Legislative Assembly in the 1957 elections. He was a member of the 1960 Constitutional Assembly and a signatory of the independence constitution. He was re-elected in 1961 and ran unopposed in the 1964 elections.[1] After being re-elected unopposed again in the 1967 elections he was appointed Minister for Works and Transport by Prime Minister Fiame Mata'afa. Despite being re-elected unopposed in the 1970 elections, he was left out of the cabinet of new Prime Minister Tupua Tamasese.

Mata'afa returned as Prime Minister following the 1973 elections and Rapi was appointed Minister of Lands. Returned unopposed again in 1976, he was not included in the new government of Tupuola Efi. However, he returned as Minister of Lands and Survey following the February 1979 elections; prior to his appointment to the cabinet he had voted for Efi and against his brother Va'ai Kolone in the vote for Prime Minister, which Efi won by a single vote.

He died in the national hospital in December 1979 after collapsing outside the Legislative Assembly, survived by his wife Tiresa and twelve children.[2]

References

1. Samoan election results by constituency 1964–2016 Samoa Election Results Database
2. Lesatele Rapi Pacific Islands Monthly, February 1980, p73