JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- A mother whose daughter and granddaughter attend Oprah Winfrey's school in South Africa considers the talk-show host heaven-sent, despite allegations of abuse being investigated there.
"Oprah is an angel, she is God-sent," Masechaba Hine said Wednesday from her small home in gritty Soweto township. "She came to my rescue when my husband was not working."
Hine's daughter Palesa and her granddaughter Alebohang, both 14, were among the 152 students chosen to be the first class to attend the high-tech, high-profile Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls when it opened in January. Her faith remains unshaken by the news that South African police have opened a criminal investigation into allegations that a dorm parent mistreated students at the school.
Hine said her children "have no problems about the school, they are happy about everything."
Investigators declined to provide details of the alleged abuse, but the academy's CEO, John Samuel, said in a statement issued earlier this month that an internal inquiry was launched based on a claim of misconduct involving a dormitory parent.
According to an article in The Cape Argus, a Cape Town newspaper, the dorm parent allegedly grabbed a pupil by the throat and threw her against a wall, the girl claimed. Girls at the school also claimed that the matron swore and screamed at the girls and assaulted them, the newspaper reported Saturday.
The newspaper said one of the pupils ran away from the school, blaming the alleged abuse.
Winfrey personally selected the school's students, all of them straight-A students from underprivileged backgrounds. The students get free tuition, free uniforms, free accommodation and free meals at the school in Henley-on-Klip, near Johannesburg.
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