Oprah case highlights abuse in South Africa

[Woodmonkey]

Oprah case highlights abuse in South Africa

Alleged sexual assault at Oprah Winfrey's new girls' school sparks fresh discussion about the widespread problem.

Johannesburg, South Africa

The allegations were far from unusual: Physical and sexual abuse of young teenage girls. In South Africa, where sexual assault rates are among the world's highest, the news would normally surprise few.

But over the past month, ever since Oprah Winfrey says students at her new $40 million Leadership Academy for Girls reported that a dorm matron was sexually abusing a classmate, the response has been anything but typical.

Ms. Winfrey suspended the suspected staffer, put other school officials on leave, and brought in counselors to talk to students. Within weeks, police identified seven alleged victims, arrested 27-year-old Tiny Makopo and charged her with 13 counts of abuse.

"This has been one of the most devastating, if not the most devastating, experiences of my life," Winfrey said Monday in an emotional but forceful video address in which she detailed her response to the allegations.

It was a marked change from what children's advocates say they normally see after sexual abuse here: some combination of silence, inaction, and shame. And because of this, they hope that the alleged abuse at Winfrey's school – presented in US media this week as a "scandal" – will help bring attention to what observers call an epidemic of sexual abuse in this country.

"It's phenomenal," says Rachel Jewkes, a specialist on sexual violence with South Africa's Medical Research Council, of Winfrey's talk. "I think the message that is sent by this, that [sexual abuse] is utterly unacceptable, is a really powerful one. We never get a message that's so unequivocal about how these acts should be judged. Wouldn't it be wonderful if these acts would always be taken so seriously?"

Even with rape and sexual assault considered underreported crimes in South Africa, the numbers here are staggering: 54,926 reported rapes in 2006 for a country of 47 million, according to the South African Police Force. In the US, whose population is more than six times as large, there were less than double the number of reported rapes that same year – 92,455.

Sky-high sexual abuse rates

For girls, abuse often happens at school, studies show. The 2005 National Youth Victimization Survey, conducted by a team of academics, found that 23 percent of teens between the ages of 12 and 17 had been threatened or harassed at school, and 24 percent had been sexually assaulted at school. In a 1998 health survey, which Dr. Jewkes helped conduct, more than half the women who said they were raped before they turned 15 identified the perpetrator as a teacher.

"It's not just these big, high-profile incidents; child sexual abuse is a significant problem, and it has been around for a long time," says Andy Dawes, research director of the Human Sciences Research Council in Cape Town. "[The Winfrey school case] can help put attention to services that children get.... The problem with some of these [media] events, is that there is only a short-time flurry of activity. It's about sustaining the response to this kind of events."

Fairouz Nagia-Luddy, the project coordinator for the domestic violence project of the Western Cape-based Gender Advocacy Programme, says that many girls never report sexual abuse because of cultural pressures.

"The problem is the silence around it," she says. Until Oprah, she says, few famous figures have addressed sexual abuse publicly. "It's important to create awareness at all levels," she says. "Role models coming up and speaking about it is one way of doing it."

Many girls are afraid to report encounters

Students abused by teachers are often loath to report the crimes for fear of retaliation, advocates say.

In addition to the problem of girls being afraid to report abuse, a 2001 Human Rights Watch report documented widespread incompetence when it came to following up on girls' complaints. The report found "a great deal of confusion over responsibility for resolving problems and repeatedly encountered breaks in the chain of communication between school officials, police, and prosecutors, with all actors shifting responsibility and sexually abused girls getting lost in the shuffle."

In a new study that Jewkes is working on, she says a close review of thousands of police rape files also shows consistent investigative lapses – investigators losing track of a victim because they never asked for her phone number or address, for instance.

"The patterns of failures of policing are incredible and they are repetitive," she says. "A lot of cases fall down because very basic things aren't done."

These won't be issues in the Leadership Academy case, Winfrey says.

"It is one of my goals in life to put child abusers, whether they be in my home, whether they be in my workplace, or, in this case, in the Academy, to put them where they belong," she said. "And that is behind bars."

Earlier this week Makopo appeared in the Sebokeng Magistrate's court south of Johannesburg and heard the charges against her – indecent assault, common assault, soliciting a minor to perform indecent acts, and verbal abuse. She told the court she intended to plead not guilty.

Source

[conlor]

Oprah said once that she was the victim of a sexual assault when she was younger.

EURweb.com - SEXUAL, PHYSICAL ABUSE ALLEGATIONS AT OPRAH'S SCHOOL: Host flies in over weekend to personally assess the situation.

*More details of the alleged misconduct by a dorm parent at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa have surfaced. According to Fox News, an Afrikaans-language newspaper reported that the female employee is accused of various incidents of physical and sexual abuse against the students.

The woman, who has since been removed from the campus, allegedly grabbed a girl by the throat and threw her against a wall. Other alleged charges were that she swore and screamed at the girls, assaulted them and had sexually fondled at least one of them, according to Rapport newspaper.

The alleged incidents went public after one of the pupils ran away from the school because the abuse had become intolerable, according to Rapport. Her parents immediately notified the school.

Winfrey, herself the victim of childhood sexual abuse, immediately caught a flight to South Africa to check on the allegations. She is said to have arrived just over a week ago, missing an important Hollywood engagement. She then returned unexpectedly on Friday and left again on Sunday, reports Fox News.

The TV mogul met with the school’s executive and private investigators and held a two-hour meeting with the parents of her students, who were flown to Johannesburg from all over the country. A report by a private investigator flown in from the United States to conduct an inquiry with a South African counterpart has been turned over to the local police.

In her only public comment about the incident, Winfrey issued a statement saying: “Nothing is more serious or devastating to me than an allegation of misconduct by an adult against any girl at the academy.”

[sabadgeman]

This is a country where certain sections of the community believe that to cure aids you have to rape a virgin white preferably but if not any virgin will do!