Oprah Winfrey has announced that the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa will close its boarding school after the 2027 academic year, bringing an end to a project she began with Nelson Mandela nearly two decades ago.
The media mogul confirmed the decision in an interview with Oprah Daily, saying the future of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls lies in a wider education initiative reaching young women across South Africa.
The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls opened its doors in 2007 in Henley-on-Klip, a small town in Gauteng province. It was built at a reported cost of 40 million US dollars on a 22 acre site with modern classrooms, science and computer laboratories, a library and a wellness centre.
More than 1,000 students have graduated from the academy since it opened, going on to work as doctors, lawyers, engineers and entrepreneurs, Oprah Daily reported.
Winfrey partnered with former South African president Nelson Mandela to found the tuition free boarding school for academically gifted girls from disadvantaged backgrounds, catering to grades eight through twelve.
Under the terms of the original partnership agreement, the residential campus of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls will be handed back to South Africa’s Gauteng Department of Education once the 2027 school year ends, according to Oprah Daily.
Students currently enrolled at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls will not be affected immediately. As confirmed by Oprah Daily, they will complete their education with continued academic, financial and other support before the handover takes place.
Winfrey described the closure as a new chapter rather than an ending. She told Oprah Daily that the dream continues in every girl whose future can be transformed through education, adding that she is excited for this next chapter to allow the organisation to reach even more young women across South Africa and continue the promise that began more than 20 years ago.
Local officials will take over daily operations of the site. Winfrey is expected to keep supporting students through a new scholarship programme, which will launch once the current cohort at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls has graduated.
The school’s history has not been without controversy. Months after it opened, former matron Tiny Virginia Makopo, as reported by Oprah Daily and corroborated by wire service Associated Press, faced allegations of abusing several students, including claims that she tried to kiss and touch girls inappropriately, as well as separate assault claims involving a student and a member of staff.
Makopo was acquitted of all charges by a South African court in 2010. Winfrey said at the time that she was left profoundly disappointed by the verdict, a sentiment she voiced publicly in the aftermath of the trial.
The case also triggered a defamation lawsuit filed by the school’s former headmistress, Nomvuyo Mzamane, against Winfrey in the United States. The dispute, as detailed in reporting by Associated Press, was settled later that year, after Mzamane said she had never been told about the abuse allegations, while Winfrey’s legal team argued she had failed to act on earlier complaints involving staff and students.
Despite the controversy, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls has remained one of the most closely watched philanthropic education projects on the continent, drawing attention for both its scale and its long term outcomes for graduates now working across various professional fields.
