Nearly 20 years after opening a boarding school for underprivileged girls in South Africa, Oprah Winfrey announced on July 29, 2026, that she will shutter the institution and replace it with a wider scholarship initiative designed to help twice as many students across the nation.
The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls (OWLAG) will cease operations when the 2027 academic year concludes, with the sprawling property south of Johannesburg reverting to provincial authorities as originally planned when the campus opened.
Winfrey, 72, framed the closure not as an ending but as an evolution of her vision to empower young women through education — a mission that she said transcends any single building and lives on in every graduate whose future has been transformed.
From Mandela’s Vision to a $40 Million Campus
The school’s roots stretch back to 2002, when conversations between Winfrey and Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid icon and former president, centered on the transformative power of educating girls. Those discussions led to a boarding school targeting students from disadvantaged communities, and when OWLAG welcomed its first class in 2007, Mandela attended the opening ceremony.
The facility in Henley-on-Klip was constructed at a reported cost of $40 million and spans 52 acres, housing two dozen classrooms and half a dozen science and computer labs, plus a 10,000-volume library and a 600-seat theater. Winfrey’s charitable foundation funded and operated the institution, which educates girls in grades eight through 12, but the original agreement always stipulated that the campus would eventually transfer to the Gauteng provincial education department.
Provincial education minister Lebogang Maile said the students currently enrolled will complete their studies with full financial backing, and the Gauteng education department pledged to uphold the academy’s legacy and ensure the site continues serving the province’s residents, though officials have not disclosed specific plans for the property.
Shifting to Scholarships Across the Country
Instead of concentrating resources at one location, Winfrey is pivoting to a nationwide scholarship program that will support academically gifted girls at elite schools throughout South Africa. A representative for the foundation said the new approach will roughly double the number of beneficiaries and represents the core rationale for moving on after two decades.
All students who have not yet graduated when OWLAG closes will be transferred to other top-tier institutions, with Winfrey covering their full tuition through completion. The expanded scholarship initiative will launch once the remaining academy students have transitioned.
“The dream that began with one academy will now reach even farther,” Winfrey said in a video.
A Legacy Marked by Achievement and Controversy
The academy’s history includes both triumph and turmoil. Shortly after its 2007 launch, multiple students accused a dormitory matron of physical and sexual abuse. Winfrey traveled to South Africa to meet with the girls and their families, delivered a public apology, and commissioned an independent investigation. The matron was acquitted when criminal proceedings concluded in 2010.
Critics also questioned the campus’s opulence from the outset, with features that included a pair of theater spaces, facilities for yoga and beauty treatments, among other amenities. Some observers argued the funds could have benefited more students if distributed across the country. The closure announcement sparked online chatter about possible mismanagement, but a public relations consultant representing the foundation rejected any suggestion that such issues influenced the decision.
According to foundation figures, more than 1,000 girls have graduated from OWLAG, with alumnae attending leading universities in South Africa, the United States and Europe and entering careers spanning medicine, law, engineering, the arts, business leadership and entrepreneurship.
Andronica Klaas, who graduated in 2012 and now serves as a senior engineering lead at Meta, said the school reshaped her understanding of what she could achieve. “OWLAG convinced me that preparation, character and purpose mattered more than where I came from,” she said.
Reflecting on the graduates who have fanned out across professions, Winfrey expressed admiration. “I am dazzled and in awe of them,” she said, describing alumnae who have become professionals spanning business, legal practice, parenthood, medicine, creative fields and corporate leadership.