Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

A TARGET-shooting coach sobbed when South African National Defence Force members removed a total of 16 target-shooting rifles from her school, as part of the government's policy to make schools nationwide gun-free zones.

Education Minister Kader Asmal earlier this month backtracked on his decision to allow guns at schools after it emerged that a shocking 6 000 rifles at schools were not recorded on the police's licensing system.

Asmal has recommended that air guns be used to replace the .22 rifles which were given to schools by the former South African Defence Force.

Already the army has begun confiscating guns from 266 schools countrywide that offered target shooting as a sport.

Janice Wright, target-shooting coach at Glenwood High School in Durban, said she could not hold back her tears when an army official arrived at her school last week to collect the rifles. "I just broke down. Glenwood was one of the oldest shooting schools in the country and now the sport is dead. The guns were ripped away from us just when my pupils were getting really good at it."

She said she was at a loss to explain to her shottists why the sport was considered dangerous now when they had not had a single accident.

Mahomed Sader, a Grade 11 pupil at Glenwood High, said he was horrified that target shooting had been banned at schools. "For three years the sport has been an important part of my life and now, suddenly, people who don't do the sport have decided to stop it forever."

Tony Knox, musketry master at Tugela High on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast, said his pupils, who have special learning needs, were devastated. "I have a boy who suffered with polio and can barely walk. But when he had a gun in his hand, he felt on top of the world.

"One of my girls started crying hysterically when the army arrived at our school recently to remove our 18 rifles. She is very heavily built and cannot participate in any other sport. Shooting has given her confidence. "

Knox said target shooting was one of the few sports where his pupils could compete with children from mainstream schools. "It meant so much to them that they were not classified as pupils with special needs at shooting competitions. " he said. "I had a large lump in my throat when I saw the guns being taken away and I nearly cried when I saw the look on my kids' faces."

Leon du Preez, chairman of the Mpumalanga Shooting Club, said only three schools in the province still had the .22 rifles on their property.

"These rifles will be removed by the end of next week.

"The sport is dead in this province. Out of the 16 schools in the province that have taken part in .22 rifle shooting, only five have indicated that they may continue with air rifles."

Du Preez said the removal of the guns had been emotional for both the teachers and the pupils.

"Some teachers have spent thousands of man hours teaching the sport they feel lost now," he said.

Colonel John Rolt, spokesman for the SANDF, said the removal of the rifles from the schools had to be completed by May. "The guns will be stored at the army's general support bases. The plan is to eventually destroy them," he said.