South Africa's Premier Girls School Shuts Down, Leaving 500 Graduates and Current Students

JOHANNESBURG - More than 500 girls have passed through its classrooms since 2007. By the end of next year, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls will close its doors, ending a two-decade initiative that shaped the lives of young women from disadvantaged backgrounds across South Africa and raising immediate questions about what comes next for the students still enrolled.

The academy, established near Johannesburg on a 52-acre campus, will transfer to the Gauteng provincial government under a longstanding agreement between Winfrey’s charitable foundation and local authorities. The closure reflects a shift in strategy, not an abandonment of the underlying mission to support girls’ education in the country.

For families and students currently enrolled, the most pressing concern is continuity. Gauteng Provincial Minister for Education Lebogang Maile confirmed that girls already attending the school will be permitted to complete their studies with uninterrupted financial support. No student mid-program will be left without a path forward.

The campus itself represents substantial public infrastructure. Its 21 classrooms, six science and computer laboratories, a library holding 10,000 volumes, and a 600-seat theater have served as the physical backbone of the academy’s educational model. Provincial authorities have not yet disclosed how the property will be used once the academy closes, leaving that question open for the communities in Gauteng who may eventually benefit from the facility.

Meanwhile, Winfrey is redirecting her foundation’s resources toward a broader national scholarship program. Rather than concentrating support on a single residential campus, the new model will direct funding to academically talented girls attending leading schools across South Africa, widening the pool of young women who can access support.

In her statement announcing the decision, Winfrey framed the shift as an extension of the original vision rather than a retreat from it. “The dream was never simply to build a school,” she said. “It was to invest in the limitless potential of young women. That mission doesn’t end with one campus. It continues in every girl whose future can be transformed through education.”

The academy’s origins carried significant symbolic weight. Winfrey’s vision grew from conversations with former President Nelson Mandela about the transformative power of educating young women, and Mandela attended the institution’s opening ceremony in 2007, lending his presence to what was conceived as a flagship project for girls from underprivileged backgrounds.

The school’s history has not been without serious difficulty. Shortly after its 2007 opening, several students accused a dormitory matron of physical and sexual abuse. Winfrey traveled to South Africa to meet directly with the affected students and their families, issued a public apology, and commissioned an independent investigation. The matron was acquitted of criminal charges in 2010, concluding the legal proceedings tied to the case.

Graduates of the academy have gone on to universities in South Africa, the United States, and Europe, a track record that illustrates the reach of the institution’s impact on individual lives and on the communities those young women return to.

The strategic recalibration, from a single residential campus to a distributed scholarship model, reflects a judgment by Winfrey’s foundation that broader reach may now serve more South African girls than a single site can. Whether the Gauteng government’s stewardship of the campus will preserve or extend that educational legacy for the surrounding community remains the central unanswered question as the transition unfolds.