Two news stories illustrate the abundance of guns in schools.
DUMISANE LUBISI reports
A YOUNG gunman tried to force a Northern Province principal to write a fake school testimonial for him on Monday.
Police spokeswoman Inspector Mosima Serite said three males, aged between 17 and 21, were arrested at Makopi High School, near Burgersfort, after the incident. She said the suspects were not pupils at the school.
When they arrived the 21-year-old confronted principal George Maphanga, 40, and demanded a testimonial. “The suspect allegedly threatened to assault Maphanga if he refused to write the fake document,” said Serite.
Maphanga called teachers in the nearby staffroom and the suspect ran away – but he handed the gun to one of his companions first.
Police made three arrests, and the suspects are expected to appear in the Mecklenburg Periodical Court on Wednesday. The gun was not licensed.
Also on Monday, an 18-year-old pupil pistol-whipped a fellow pupil of the same age for taking a stroll with the suspect’s girlfriend in the Northern Province.
Seshego police spokesman Inspector Malesela Ledwaba said on Tuesday the incident happened in the grounds of Nare High School, at Seshego near Pietersburg. He demanded to know what the youth was doing with his girlfriend before attacking him. “Teachers intervened to rescue the grade 11 pupil, and the suspect ran away,” said Ledwaba.
He added the suspect was arrested when his brother took him to police on Tuesday morning. The second gun was not licensed, either, and Ledwaba said use of unlicensed firearms in Seshego was on the increase. Fifteen of them have been seized in the area in the past three months.
— African Eye News Service, February 16, 2000.