JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — Oprah Winfrey said Monday that she wept for half an hour when she heard a dorm matron was accused of abusing students at her school for disadvantaged South African girls. She promised to “clean house,” starting with the headmistress.
Winfrey, who spoke to South African reporters by satellite from the U.S., said officials at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls told students to “put on happy faces” and not complain to her. Though she said she wasn’t responsible for hiring at the school, she said the screening process was inadequate and that “the buck always stops with me.”
Dorm matron Tiny Virginia Makopo, 27, appeared in court in Johannesburg and said she was “not guilty” of the 13 charges of indecent assault, assault and criminal injury against six students ages 13 to 15 and a 23-year-old co-worker.
The Associated Press
