In 2000, media superstar Oprah Winfrey promised Nelson Mandela, that she would build his country a top-notch boarding school for disadvantaged girls. Her twin purpose was to use the power of education to help impoverished young girls with exceptional promise to realize their potential and transform their lives and, at the same time, to train a cohort of strong new leaders who would contribute to the success of post-Apartheid South Africa.
To that end, Winfrey built a $40 million dream school: spacious, thoughtfully-designed, and elegantly-appointed, with excellent teachers, small classes, modern facilities, and extensive grounds. The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy is built on an expansive campus and lavishly equipped, and is intended to allow children from poor families to realise their academic potential.
In South Africa and elsewhere, the opening of the extraordinary school garnered much attention, praise, and imitators, but also drew significant criticism. Some of the critics were appalled at using so much money to create so posh a facility for so few children, when so many were in desperate need. Others chided Winfrey for failing to take a community-based approach, and for separating the children from their homes and communities.
The school for 152 girls from poor families was opened to much fanfare, with Winfrey declaring it "the proudest, gravest day of my life". Stars including the singers Tina Turner, Mariah Carey and Mary J Blige, the film-maker Spike Lee, and the actor Sydney Poitier attended the opening ceremony.
However, the academy faced significant challenges shortly after its opening. These challenges included allegations of abuse and misconduct, which prompted investigations and soul-searching. Let's delve into these issues and their impact on the school and its mission.
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Allegations of Abuse and Misconduct
A tearful Oprah Winfrey has begged forgiveness from parents of girls at her school in South Africa, following allegations of sexual and physical abuse. In an emergency meeting in Henley-on-Klip, south of Johannesburg, Winfrey was visibly distraught at reports that students had been abused by a school matron.
"I've disappointed you. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry," she was quoted as telling the families by the South African news site News24.com.
According to press reports, a matron had grabbed one student by the throat and thrown her against a wall. Other students have said they were sworn at and assaulted. The allegations surfaced when one girl ran away from the school.
"I trusted her. When I appointed her, I thought she was passionate about the children of Africa," Winfrey told reporters last week. "But I've been disappointed."
The staff are now under investigation by the authorities.
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Two days after the report, the police confirmed that the case has been opened against the dorm parent and that it involves mistreatment of a girl child there. Apparently, the child was grabbed by the neck and thrown against the wall by the dorm parent and fondled in an uncomfortable way. That's what they said.
The dorm parent has been suspended pending for the investigation. Apparently, they have called in the Child Protection Unit as well, to counsel the kids there. Oprah Winfrey made, not one but two, emergency visits to the school in the wake of this incident. She had a meeting with the parents and told them that she would do everything she can to make sure that this doesn't happen again at her school.
South Africa was forced to confront its hidden plague of sexual abuse on Monday after the full scale of a scandal at a school set up for disadvantaged girls by talk show host Oprah Winfrey was revealed. At a bail hearing in Johannesburg, dormitory matron Tiny Virginia Makopo, 27, was charged with 13 separate counts of abuse, including indecent assault and criminal injury committed against at least six students aged 13 to 15 and a 23-year-old at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, at Henley-on-Klip outside Johannesburg.
The school was established on Jan. 2 at a cost of $40 million and opened by Winfrey in a ceremony watched by Nelson Mandela, Spike Lee and Tina Turner. Winfrey personally picked the 152 students, who study and live there free of charge.
Winfrey traveled to South Africa in Oct. 13 to investigate the allegations involving her school, aided by a team of private detectives. The school announced on Oct. 17 that a dormitory matron had been suspended over accusations of serious misconduct. It also reported the allegations to the police.
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Hours after the bail hearing, Winfrey addressed a press conference on South African television via satellite link from her studio in Chicago in which she spoke about the incidence of sexual abuse in South Africa. A woman is raped every 40 seconds in this country of 44 million - a total of 55,000 rapes a year. Given those figures, said Winfrey, the school had measures in place to keep abusers out, but they had proved insufficient. Sexual abuse often “happens right in the family, [at the hands of] people they know and trust,” she said, “and this was also the alleged case here.”
Though she said she was not responsible for hiring at the school, Winfrey said “the buck always stops with me.” “It has shaken me to my core,” added Winfrey. “This has been one of the most devastating, if not the most devastating, experiences of my life… As with all such experiences, there is always something to be gained, something to be learned. At the core of me is a belief that all things happen for a reason no matter the devastation, and this too shall pass.”
All dorm matrons at the school had been dismissed, said Winfrey. “When I told them the dorm matrons had been removed, the girls cheered and wept, they were so happy,” she added, urging the abused girls, who were receiving counseling, “to take your voices back.”
“What I know is is that no one - not the accused nor any persons - can destroy the dream that I have held and the dream that each girl continues to hold for herself at the school,” Winfrey said.
Makopo, who was not asked to enter a formal plea, said she was innocent when the charges were read. The magistrate freed her on a bond of $450.
Winfrey was later sued by Mzamane for defamation and the suit was settled out of court. The terms of the settlement were not revealed.
Shortly after the all-girls high school opened in 2007, a school matron, Virginia Tiny Makopo, was charged with sexually molesting several girls. At the time Winfrey flew to South Africa to offer a personal apology to the students and their parents, citing her own experience with sexual abuse.
She also fired the school's headmistress, Lerato Nomvuyo Mzamane.
"Nothing is more serious or devastating to me than an allegation of misconduct by an adult against any girl at the academy," Winfrey said in a statement at the time. "I will do everything within my power to ensure their safety and well-being."
Makopo was acquitted of the charges last October, an action which "profoundly disappointed" Winfrey, she said.
"I will forever be proud of the nine girls who testified with the courage and conviction to be heard," said Winfrey in a statement.
Police reportedly investigating a dead newborn found at the school.
Oprah Winfrey's school for girls in South Africa is being rocked by a fresh scandal as police investigate the body of a newborn found in one of the student's bags, police said today.The baby's body was found last Wednesday in a bag the 17-year-old girl brought to a hospital where she was being treated for excessive bleeding, police Lt. Col. Lungelo Dlamini told ABC News in a statement.
It is believed that the girl, who has not been identified, gave birth at her school, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, which is located outside Johannesburg.
No charges have been filed against the girl and police will discuss the case with the Director for Public Prosecutions once the investigation has been finalized.
Police Capt. Shado Mashobane confirmed to local newspapers that the girl is still recovering in the hospital.
A spokesperson for Winfrey's academy in Chicago told ABC News that it would not comment on the incident because a minor is involved.
The academy in South Africa has suspended the principal and two other employees pending the investigation.
The man who says his daughter made the first allegations of abuse at the academy states that his child is now back home attending her old school. Meanwhile, Oprah Winfrey is back in Chicago. She hasn't commented beyond her written statement. That statement says, quote, "nothing is much serious or devastating to me than an allegation of misconduct by an adult against any girl at the academy."
The case has prompted some introspection in South Africa. “The abuse scandal that has rocked Oprah Winfrey’s South African school for girls does not reflect badly on the famous talk show host,” wrote The Times, a Johannesburg newspaper, in an editorial. “It reflects badly on this nation.”
Sexual abuse of women and children has reached “alarming proportions” in South Africa, it said, “and it should not be surprising that it manifested itself in Oprah’s school… Oprah should not be condemned for allegations made against this matron. She should be praised for her decision to aggressively deal” with it.
South Africa has some of the highest incidences of child and baby rape in the world. Many children are brutalized so often that they are desensitized to the abuse being a crime. A 2002 survey by the Community of Information, Empowerment and Transparency (CIET), an international group of epidemiologists and social scientists, found 60% of both boys and girls surveyed thought it was not violence to force sex upon someone they knew, while around 11% of boys and 4% of girls admitted to forcing someone else to have sex with them.
I, myself, have never been to the school. But he told me that it's got the best facilities. I mean, it's top of the class. And he told me that the only problem that he has with the school is the people running the school. He's been through - I can see - hell, so to speak, because he wanted to take out the child for the weekend at home so that the child recuperates.
He was planning to take her back to school on Sunday. But then, when he took her back on Monday morning and apparently he was send away with the child.
She's now at the public school, the school that she was previously before she attended Oprah's school.
When Oprah decided to build the school, everyone was happy. And I remember most of the parents wished that they had girls to be able to attend that school as well.
The people who are there see it as, kind of, like, a prison, so to speak, because they don't see their children. It feels like, it's some island for them. We think that village, so to speak, an island.
It's not an isolated incident. We've had incidents of self-abuse. We have a problem of that - of children being abused (unintelligible) communities. And it's an ongoing thing.
investigators as well. So, we're waiting for them to finish the investigation.
People are happy that it's there. As to how it's going to pan out, as time goes on, I wonder as to whether anything in 2008 if parents are going to be free to release their kids to attend the school. I think that will also depend on the outcome of the investigation.
Child abduction survivor, Todd Bequette, shares his experience of being kidnapped at age 13 and held captive for 18 months. He opens up about the abuse he suffered, the guilt he feels for recruiting other children and how this experience affected him. Elizabeth Smart’s father Ed discusses what happens when an abducted child returns home. Plus, President and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Ernie Allen, discusses laws that need to change.
Oprah Winfrey on Career, Life, and Leadership
Todd Bequette died of a heart attack in 2013.
Here is a summary of the key events and responses:
| Event | Response |
|---|---|
| Allegations of sexual and physical abuse by a school matron | Oprah Winfrey apologized to parents, staff investigated, Child Protection Unit called in |
| Discovery of a dead newborn at the school | Police investigation, no comment from the academy due to minor involvement |
| Lawsuit against Oprah Winfrey for defamation | Settled out of court, terms not revealed |
Oprah Winfrey at the Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.
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tags: #Africa
