Sometimes when you get it wrong you can just say you are sorry. Case in point, TMZ issued an apology for falsely reporting reporting, that Nomvuto Mzamane, the head mistress at Oprah Winfrey's Leadership Academy for Girls, was charged with abusing children at the school. But when Oprah herself "inferred" that Mzamane was partial at fault for "allowing" abuse under her leadership; well that is going to cost Oprah some cold hard cash in a law suit.
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Nomvuyo Mzamane accuses Winfrey of falsely implying that she wasn't trustworthy, and of making such statements as, "I thought she cared about the girls of South Africa" in the wake of a sex abuse scandal at her Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.
Tiny Virginia Makopo, a dorm matron who worked under Mzamane, was charged with abusing six students last year. She has pleaded not guilty to 14 related charges in a South African court.
Mzamane's lawsuit seeks more than $250,000 on five defamation and related counts from Winfrey and her production companies, reports the Associated Press. Winfrey denies making any false or defamatory statements and argues that the federal suit should not proceed in Pennsylvania.
Winfrey recruited Mzamane for the $150,000-a-year post in late 2006. Mzamane worked from about January 2007 through October 2007, when she learned, during a meeting with Winfrey in Chicago, that allegations of sexual and physical abuse had surfaced and she was being put on leave.
Mzamane, a native of Lesotho, previously held a leadership post at the Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia and returned to the area after her contract wasn't renewed at Winfrey's school. Mzamane says she has been unable to find work because of Winfrey's comments.
Winfrey asked the court either to dismiss the suit for jurisdictional reasons or, in keeping with the school contract, to order arbitration. She and her companies do no business in Pennsylvania, according to the response from lawyers Carl A. Salono of Philadelphia and Charles S. Sims of New York.
"The fact that her statements were reported from the press in South Africa around the world does not support, and rather contradicts, any contention that she targeted Pennsylvania in making her comments," they wrote.