CAPE TOWN, southern Africa -- Polic...

CAPE TOWN, southern Africa -- Police questioned eight populace Friday after discovering an investment scam that used Oprah Winfrey's name, days after she interviewed prospective pupils in southern Africa for her new all-girls sect

About 500 tribe crowded into a community center in the eastern city of Grahamstown after being told that they had to make a simple payment of $140 with the promise of then receiving $168 a month for 10 years. Police said Winfrey knew nothing about it.

Authorities who went to the community center Thursday after hearing locals boast about their pending windfall were exclaimed at and told to go on foot away, the South African Pres Association reported Friday.

"This proces is believed to have started earlier this week," Mali Govender told SAPA. "By word of jaws the community were informed of this easy way of making money"

73 chooseed for girls school

Police confiscated 160 applications and reverted nearly $280, he said.

Scams are a resort to frequently occurrence in South Africa, targeted mainly at the poor and uneducated. The latest individual was apparently fueled by publicity surrounding Winfrey's brief visit to the region to interview prospective pupils for the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.

At a observance Sunday, Winfrey selected all 73 girls ages 11-12 who had shown up for interviews. More children from other parts of southerly Africa will be chosen later this year.

Lisa Halliday, a spokeswoman for the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation, said that in the first year the aim is to admit 150 scholars and that ultimately there will be places for 450 girls in grades 7-12

The academy, which is to unclose in January, has the blessing of southern African education authorities who donated the site southerly of Johannesburg. The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation contributed $40 million toward the establishment of the academy.

"It is a positive thing for southern Africa," said local education department spokesman Lusufi Banyaza. "We used to have private trains denying access to the poor onward cost grounds. Now girls will be able to commit to memory access to quality private education."

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