Just two months after its much-heralded opening, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls closed ranks this week after one of the girls was sent home "due to illness".
What started as a routine inquiry by the Saturday Star turned out to be a case cloaked in mystery at the plush school at Henley-on-Klip in Meyerton.
No one at the school was prepared to give any details about the girl or her illness, and the Gauteng Education Department refused to comment because it is an independent school.
School chairperson John Samuel said a girl was sent home due to an illness but would not elaborate. "We want to be respectful to the parents and to the girl by not divulging what was wrong with her."
When asked about the promises Winfrey had made of looking after all the needs of the girls, including their health, Samuel said: "The doctors at the school tried to help her but, on their advice, it was decided that she should go home."
Lisa Halliday, communications director of the US Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation said its policy was not to release personal information or details of health issues, as the academy's main concern was to "protect the privacy and dignity" of its learners.
Questions over the "culture" of the new school have also been raised. Some parents wanted "some aspects of African life and norms" to be considered by Winfrey.
"Everything she has done so far has been wonderful and we are grateful for that, but I am praying that one of these days there will be a parents' meeting where we can discuss the progress of the children and how to handle issues of culture," said a grandmother who did not want to be identified.
She said there had been a death in her family recently and she had asked for the child to be allowed to attend the funeral, but she was refused because "it must be a member of the immediate family".
"I think Oprah needs to understand that, as black people, extended family is very important. When there is a death in the family, our children attend. Family to us is not only brother, sister, mother and father - it is the entire clan," explained the grandmother.
Another parent complained she was allowed to speak to her daughter only once a week and see her only once a month. "You can live in the most beautiful and luxurious place, but home is home, and your family are your family," said the mother.