South African Archbishop apologises over child abuse scandal

The Archbishop of Cape Town held a press briefing on Tuesday after a review panel found that the Anglican Church in South Africa failed to inform other churches of “high risk” posed by the child abuser John Smyth.

“I accept the panel’s finding unreservedly. I acknowledge that during Smyth’s time in Cape Town, God’s people were exposed to the potential of his abuse, and I and the diocese apologize to our congregants and the wider community that we did not protect people from that risk,” Thabo Makgoba said.

According to Makgoba, the panel’s review covered the past actions of the church in South Africa, including its handling of a report on Smyth’s abuse in the U.K. in 1981 and 1982 and in Zimbabwe in the 1990s, received from the Diocese of Ely in 2013.

Makgoba said that so far they have received no reports of abuse in the South African church.

Africanews/Hauwa M.