Oprah Winfrey Closing South Africa Girls School After 19 Years [tkdC9fkVY5c]
Oprah Winfrey Closing South Africa Girls' School After 19 Years Oprah Winfrey announces the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa will close after the 2027 school year — and what's replacing it is bigger than anyone expected. 🌍 #Oprah Oprah Winfrey, 72, announced on July 29, 2026 that her Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls (OWLAG) in Henley on Klip, South Africa — opened in 2007 in partnership with Nelson Mandela at a cost of $40 million — will close its residential campus at the end of the 2027 school year. The Gauteng Department of Education will take over the facility per the original partnership agreement. Displaced students will have full tuition covered by Winfrey through graduation. A new expanded scholarship program will serve double the number of girls across South Africa. SOURCE NOTE: Confirmed across PEOPLE, TMZ, TheGrio, LiveNOW/FOX, Yahoo Entertainment, and Oprah Daily. Newly confirmed today: the Gauteng DOE handover and the scholarship expansion scope. Still unconfirmed: exact number of students currently enrolled who will be displaced.