Teacher kills three colleagues

VIOLENCE in South African schools reached gruesome new heights yesterday when a Soweto high school teacher shot and killed three colleagues in their staff room.

Pupils and teachers who witnessed the killings, which occurred moments before lessons were to begin, said the teacher went berserk, firing 27 shots. He killed two women and a man before he was arrested.

The shooting happened the day after the Education Minister, Kader Asmal, launched a five-year plan to remedy a sector which he described as being "in crisis at each level''. Firearms are common among both teachers and pupils.