Oprah Scandal Rocks South AfricaSouth 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. 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.
http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1680715,00.htmlMatron Tiny Virginia Makopo