1.
GV Dieretuin Zoo entrance (2 shots)
0.06

2.
GV Black children on swings and roundabouts
0.14

3.
LV & CU Child on wooden horse (2 shots)
0.21

4.
SV Coloured girl gets on donkey (2 shots)
0.32

5.
SV Other children onto donkeys and donkeys led out... walking in grounds of zoo (5 shots)
1.28

6.
SV Horse-drawn buggy with white children aboard
1.34

7.
LV White children and families look at donkeys
1.41

8.
SV Small boy lifted onto donkey
1.46

9.
CU White children watch (3 shots)
1.54

10.
GV White children having donkey ride
1.58



Initials BB/0122 RW/AW/BB/0136



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Black children are now able to ride donkeys at Johannesburg zoo, in South Africa, for the first time.

Restrictions were relaxed after a city councillor noticed a group of little Africans enviously watching while white children rode animals there.

Mr. Monty Sklaar, chairman of the city's Health and Amenities Committee, arranged for four donkeys to be made available for black children.

White children are allowed to ride ponies and elephants as well, but Mr. Sklaar said it had been decided to make only donkeys available for the black children as these animals were the easiest to train.

SYNOPSIS: Changes are being made at Dieretuin zoo in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Until recently, these black children had to be content with amusing themselves on the normal playground fixtures.

The nearest they got to a ride on a real animal was this wooden horse.

But now they have donkeys to ride. The restrictions were relaxed after a city councillor noticed a group of little African children enviously watching while white children rode animals.

Mr. Monty Sklaar, chairman of the city's Health and Amenities Committee, arranged for four donkeys to be made available for black children. Each ride costs them five cents. White children an ride donkeys, ponies and elephants at Johannesburg zoo. But Mr. Sklaar said it had been decided to make only donkeys available for the black children at this time because these animals were easiest to train. Uniformed African attendants lead the donkeys around the zoo. The black children are taken around a different and separate area to the white children.

Johannesburg zoo is one of the few public places in South Africa charging an entrance fee where Africans are admitted at the same time as whites, and africans pay less for admission. Many places have days set a side when blacks are allowed in.