Anglican Church in South Africa admits failures in handling of sexual abuse claims

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This article was published 04/02/2025 (418 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The Anglican Church leadership in South Africa has admitted to failing to disclose sexual abuse allegations against its former member John Smyth, who mistreated children in the 1970s and 1980s in the U.K. and Zimbabwe before fleeing to South Africa, where he died in 2018.

In November, an independent review found the Church of England covered up “horrific” abuse by Smyth, who volunteered at Christian summer camps in the 1970s and 1980s.

A South African panel, headed by a retired judge, released its own report Tuesday in which it said the Anglican Church should have reported Smyth, even though there was no evidence that he had committed similar abuses in the country. Nevertheless, the risk that he would reoffend was high, the panel found.

Smyth fled to South Africa in 2001, where he worked in parishes until 2014.

The head of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa said the report found that warnings had not been passed on.

“In addition, it criticized us for not sharing with another church, to which he moved in 2014 (not an Anglican church), the warning we received in 2013 of his activities in the U.K. and Zimbabwe,” said Archbishop Thabo Makgoba on Tuesday.

Smyth joined the church after fleeing Zimbabwe to South Africa in 2001 following allegations that he had sexually, physically, and psychologically abused over 100 children and men during Christian summer camps, where he volunteered.

Last year, the former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigned following an inquiry that found that he failed to tell police about serial abuse by Smyth when he became aware of it in 2013.

The inquiry found that the Church of England covered up “horrific” abuse by Smyth, with the 251-page report saying he had abused 30 boys and young men in the UK and 85 in Africa over five decades.

Makgoba on Tuesday apologized to members of the church for putting congregants at risk.

“I and the Diocese apologize to our congregants and the wider community that we did not protect people from that risk,” Makgoba said on Tuesday.

“Despite the efforts of some individuals to bring the abuse to the attention of authorities, the responses by the Church of England and others were wholly ineffective and amounted to a coverup,” the inquiry said the time.