The selling of bread to customers on Sunday will become a crime in Tonga starting today July 3.
It is now banned after protests by church leaders saying the business breached Tonga’s Sunday trading ban law.
The church leaders believed only five percent of the people in Tonga were affected when the ban came into effect.
However one of Tonga’s major bakeries, the Cowley Bakery, had estimated about 80 percent of the people in the mainland Tongatapu relied on bread for their food on Sunday.
Tonga’s Police Minister Hon. Pohiva Tu’i’onetoa was quoted in a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office as saying “it has been about 30 years now that Tonga has breached its own Sabbath Law with bakeries and restaurants operating on Sunday”.
The statement said: “Only restaurants in hotel and other accommodations are to operate on Sunday”.
“According to the Constitution, Sunday should be kept holy and no person shall practice his trade or profession or conduct any commercial undertaking”.
Hon. Tu’i’onetoa said Tonga is a Christian country and Tupou I formally decreed Sunday to be kept holy and the prohibition of trading activities on Sabbath.
He said there is exception to trading on Sunday but only in times of natural disasters.
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Government has no record of decision being made to allow bakeries to operate on Sunday
