JOHANNESBURG, South Africa- Oprah Winfrey said she wept for half an hour when she heard a dormitory matron was accused of abusing students at her school for disadvantaged South African girls, and promised to “clean house” starting with the head mistress.
Winfrey spoke to reporters in South Africa by satellite from the United States hours after the accused dormitory matron appeared in court near Johannesburg and was granted bail.
Tiny Virginia Makopo, 27, said she was “not guilty” of 13 charges of indecent assault, assault and criminal injury committed against six students aged 13-15, and a 23-year-old fellow dormitory matron.
Winfrey, who was abused as a child and campaigned for laws in the United States to protect children from abusers, said that because of the high rates of rape and sexual abuse in South Africa, she had worked to ensure outsiders would not be able to reach students at the school.
But “as often is the case, child abuse, sexual abuse, happens right within the family, right within the confines of people you know,” she said.
Winfrey said she had been informed by the school’s chief executive John Samuel in early October that 15 girls had produced a list of complaints including the sexual assault of a classmate.
She organized an independent investigation headed by Richard Farley, a Chicago detective who specializes in child abuse.
She said she flew to South Africa to speak with the pupils and encourage them to come forward with their complaints.
“It was a chance to break the silence,” she said.
“No one, not the accused or anyone else, can destroy the dream I have held or that the girls hold. Their light will not be diminished by this,” she said.