It has been three years since a woman was accused of abusing young school girls at a school in Africa. However this was not just any school, but a school founded and supported by superstar mogul Oprah Winfrey.
Originally, the school matron, Tiny Virginia Makopo, had been accused by prosecutors of trying to kiss and fondle girls at the school soon after it opened in 2007 outside Johannesburg. She had also been accused of assaulting one of the teens and a fellow supervisor. This past week, Makopo was acquitted of all charges, according to Mthunzi Mhaga, a spokesman for South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority.
Winfrey was shocked by the initial allegations and faced some strong criticism and ridicule when the allegations first emerged, prompting her to make public statements promising an overhaul of how the school would be run in the future.
The lavish facility, The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, which opened in January 2007, was a project that cost $40 million in total. The goal of the school is to provide young girls from difficult and deprived communities a quality education in a country dealing with the historic legacy of apartheid. It is located on a 22-acre campus and is home to about 300 girls.
Winfrey said she was “profoundly disappointed” at the outcome and that she was proud of the nine young girls who testified during the trial. Winfrey herself, had been a victim of sexual abuse when she was a child. –torrance stephens, ph.d.
