Oprah Winfrey to Open Girls’ School in South Africa

A lavish girls’ academy in South Africa—paid for with $40-million from the television host Oprah Winfrey—is set to open this week, but not without criticism about its extravagance, reports Newsweek.

The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls accepted 152 applicants, out of 3,500, to attend the 22-acre, 28-building campus 40 miles from Johannesburg. Amenities include a salon, a yoga studio, fancy cotton sheets, and plenty of fireplaces.

The South African government had planned to enter a partnership with Ms. Winfrey but pulled out—probably, the article says, because the project has been criticized as elitist and wasteful in a country with widespread poverty.

Ms. Winfrey has said she intended to pamper the students because very few of them have ever experienced luxury before and because she believes that the “beauty” of the school can inspire them. The stated purpose of the academy is to educate a generation of women to help lead their country out of poverty in upcoming decades.