An exclusive report on the sexual abuse case that tarnished Oprah Winfrey's South African school—and an interview with the dorm matron at the center of the scandal.
In the moments before her trial resumes, Tiny Makopo, a former dormitory matron at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, is sending text messages and listening to the hushed chatter of her friends. She’s in Courtroom No. 3 of the magistrate’s court in Sebokeng, South Africa, a flat, ugly, dusty town about a 90-minute drive from Johannesburg.
The courtroom is shabby, but Makopo’s trial has put it onto the world stage. The 28-year-old is accused of indecently assaulting and abusing six young pupils at Winfrey’s girls’ school. Those accusations have rattled the talk-show host’s philanthropic efforts in this country, and changed many lives forever.
Makopo is indeed tiny, about 5’1”. She has child-like feet, and small hands with teeny fingernails. Her hair is relaxed and bobbed; she has short bangs, which make her round face appear even rounder. For her day in court, Makopo wears what amounts to a dress-up outfit for a poor, black woman in South Africa: a black zip-up jacket over a white T-shirt with a discreet Adidas logo, a black stretchy skirt and black suede penny-loafers with no socks. She fiddles with a black vinyl clutch bag with a plastic rhinestone on the clasp.
The criminal charges against her are shocking. In one count, Makopo is alleged to have pushed a girl against a wall and strangled her with her thumbs on the child's wind pipe. Other allegations include trying to kiss a 13-year-old with an open mouth, and putting the child’s hands on her own breasts. Makopo is accused of getting into the bed of a 14-year-old at night, and rubbing her breast against the child's. She allegedly pushed a 14-year-old onto a couch and then forced her to eat pudding, which she also rubbed into the girl's hair. And she allegedly verbally abused a 13-year-old girl, calling her a “bitch” and a “prostitute.”
Makopo has pleaded not guilty to all 14 counts. If convicted, she faces a minimum sentence of 10 years. Representatives for Oprah Winfrey declined to comment to The Daily Beast, citing a court request "not to discuss circumstances related to the trial until its conclusion."
The scandal has undoubtedly tarnished the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, located about 20 miles northeast of this court in the hamlet of Henley-on-Klip. The $40-million state-of-the-art campus opened in January 2007, the fulfillment of an earlier promise Winfrey had made to former South African president Nelson Mandela. The sheer opulence of the school captivated South Africans still reeling from apartheid, and more than 3,000 girls clamored for a spot. Nearly all of the 152 students selected came from poor backgrounds, and some from families living in shacks with no electricity or indoor plumbing. The buzz made the rounds in the townships about this special, beautiful school that would educate South African girls, and help them uplift their families out of poverty.
The allegations against Makopo came to light in October of last year, when a group of girls approached the school’s CEO, John Samuels. On November 5, Oprah Winfrey appeared live via satellite on a 10-foot television screen at a South African hotel. She told journalists she had been “shaken to the core,” and called the Makopo incident “one of the most devastating—if not the most devastating—experience of my entire life.” The news made tabloid headlines around the world, a grim case of do-gooding apparently gone wrong.
But among South Africans, the “Oprah school scandal” has been greeted with a shrug. It’s not that the public is averse to tabloid news. It’s just that the charges against Makopo have been swallowed by the horrific headlines we read every day. As Makopo was in court on Friday, a story crossed the wires about the trial of two men accused of raping and murdering three school girls in a field behind a shopping mall in Mamelodi, near the country’s capital. The bodies of the three girls were found “hogtied,” with their hands and feet bound behind their backs. They were all sexually assaulted. They had bite marks over their bodies, some of them from ants. This was considered an unremarkable news item.
Tracy Quan's latest novel is Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl, set in Provence and praised in The Nation as a "deft account of occupational rigors and anxieties before the crash." Tracy's debut, Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, and the sequel, Diary of a Married Call Girl, are international bestsellers. A regular columnist for The Guardian, she has written for many publications including Cosmopolitan, The Financial Times, and The New York Times.
Joe Mathews is a journalist, an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and a contributing writer at the Los Angeles Times. He previously served as Justice Department reporter for the Wall Street Journal and as a city desk reporter at the Baltimore Sun. He is the author of The People’s Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy.
Gerald Posner is the award-winning author of 10 investigative nonfiction bestsellers, ranging from political assassinations, to Nazi war criminals, to 9/11, to terrorism (www.posner.com). Posner lives in Miami Beach with his wife, the author Trisha Posner.
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
Renata Espinosa is the New York editor of Fashion Wire Daily. She is also the co-founder of impressionistic fashion and art blog TheNuNu and a sometimes backup dancer for "The Anna Copa Cabanna Show."
Amanda Fortini has written for The New Yorker, Slate, Elle, and New York, among other publications. She lives in Los Angeles.
Gretchen L. Wilson is Africa correspondent for the public-radio program Marketplace. Wilson is also co-author of From Dust to Diamonds: Stories of South African Social Entrepreneurs.
This article is very compelling. Until now it had seemed 100% of the coverage of this story had been Winfrey's reaction to the abuse. Great to finally get some an angle from the other side. Well written.
Incredibly insightful writing. I love the personal depth, and the big picture story of this article.
Brings you so close within South Africa...an excellent story. You do wonder if the young woman understands, or if she is merely behaving according to some social schism that parades as normal? I was moved by it. I am still sad for Oprah, I do think her heart and talent are in the right place with this project. Great job! in storytelling.
The core of molestation is humiliation. Compared to the rape of a five year old is the behavior of Makopo shocking? No, it isn't, but the grooming process of child molesters isn't necessarily shocking either. Molesters almost never start with rape because they are creating a situation where they will abuse a child over a period of time. That is a different situation from the rape of a child in an opportunistic crime - which often happens in Africa because it is believed that to rape a child, the younger the better, will provide a cure against HIV/AIDS.
Oprah's response was entirely correct and it is a testament to the safety of the school environment that the girls came forward and spoke about the behavior before it progressed any further. It is what we would want our children to be able to do in any society. The girls have demonstrated that they are leaders -- and that is to be applauded.
We hear the cliche, "We all want the same things in life," when talking about other cultures so often that we have begun to believe it. Fact is, we are different. And different is not necessarily wrong. Different can be wonderful.
This article provides an unflinching view of the differences between the society where Oprah is queen and the one in which she operates a school. The contrast of our appearance obsession and South Africa's cold, hard reality tells as much about us as it does them.
What a wonderful story. Rarely does any media portray a story from the inside out like this and give perspective where most people stay far away. Reporting like this is how we will mend broken bonds in this world; because, after all, we are all an interconnected whole. Thank you for this story and this perspective.
Thank you.
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