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p2pnet news | TV:- TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey says sexual abuse charges at her Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in South Africa devastated her.
Dorm matron 27-year-old Tiny Virginia Makopo was granted bail on 13 charges of indecent assault, assault and criminal injury committed against six girls aged between 13 and 15-years-old, and a 23-year-old girl, says AllAfrica.com.
“There is nothing more devastating to me than these allegations of misconduct against Ms Makopo by these young girls at my school,” said Winfrey spoke via satellite in Johannesburg yesterday, going on, “I will do everything in my power to ensure the girls’ safety and well-being is restored”.
Winfrey said she first time she heard about the accusations was on October 6 when she learned academy CEO John Samuel had been, “approached by a group of 15 girls with a list of grievances - including one of sexual misconduct - and implored him to act, says the Independent Online.
“He had taken immediate action by suspending the dorm parent concerned.”
In 2002, “following the request of former president Nelson Mandela, Ms Winfrey donated $10 million to build the academy at Henley on Klip, in Meyerton, in the Vaal region,” says the story.
The 26-building campus which boasts, a library, a gym, a hostel and a theatre was built to accommodate 450 students from grade seven to 12, it says.
Also See:
AllAfrica.com - Oprah Promises to Restore Dignity in School, November 6, 2007
Independent Online - The buck stops with me, says Oprah, November 6, 2007
http://digg.com/television/Oprah_Winfrey_Leadership_Academy_scandal
November 8th, 2007 at 10:26 am
November 8, 2007
Dear Editor,
Please keep in mind, that the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy For Girls school’s innocent victims of criminal sexual child abuse must prepare themselves for the sometimes unfair judicial court and police interrogations. I heard about some of these unfair law enforcement tactic’s these girls’ endured when the United States police, allegedly hired by Miss Oprah Winfrey, interrogated them. Undoubtedly, after some of the police interrogations, the girls’ were probably made to feel more like the suspect rather than the victim.
And these are the innocent girls who lost their virginity to coercive sexual abuses. Yet they still are going to have to suffer much humiliation in the judicial system, and throughout the rest of their innocent little lives. However, they must be reminded to keep faith in Almighty God forever…..
‘Very Respectfully,’
Mrs. Tracey Elaine Blair
Owner Of Little Egypt Publishing Company