Bono apologises for staff abuse at ONE Campaign

The allegations were revealed after an investigation by Mail on Sunday detailing horrendous working conditions ONE Campaign staff were subjected to in the charity’s office in South Africa and operation in Tanzania.

“My team and I heard concerns about low morale and poor management in this office but nothing along the lines of what emerged recently,” Bono said.

“I was assured that those concerns were being dealt with. Clearly they were not. The head office failed to protect those employees and I need to take some responsibility for that. We are all deeply sorry. I hate bullying, can’t stand it,” Bono told the British publication.

The maltreatment of staff is said to have been orchestrated by former ONE Campaign Africa executive director Ms Sipho Moyo.

In one case Moyo allegedly pressured a female staff member to have sex with a Tanzanian MP as a favour to win support from the Tanzanian government. She told the MP that the employee was her daughter. When the employee refused, she was demoted from a senior executive post to a receptionist, the mail reported.

In response to the allegations, Moyo, who was ONE Campaign director from 2010 to 2015, said: “They are a total fabrication. I said she was my daughter to protect her.”

Another case involved a British woman with an autistic son who was working in South Africa on a tourist visa because ONE Campaign was not registered or paying tax in South Africa. The woman, who was in a managerial post, said she was bullied on a daily basis, forced to do menial work and made to run personal errands for Moyo, which caused her mental and physical health to deteriorate.

“The overall evidence from our investigation was sufficient for me to conclude that we needed to own an institutional failure and ensure that our organisation has in place the systems, policies and practices needed so that this never happens again,” ONE Campaign president and CEO Gayle Smith said in a letter.

“Although there have been many changes to our management team since the time of these allegations, I am the president and CEO here today, so I have taken and will continue to take responsibility.

“And my choice, since the beginning, has been to move swiftly and transparently, including by last week voluntarily sharing with the UK Charity Commission our report of the investigation and the steps we have taken.”

Bono is one among many other international stars who have established organisations that give back to the African community, including Madonna, Rihanna, French Montana, 50 Cent, P Diddy and others.

The ONE Campaign incident has raised questions about how aware foreign celebrities are about the day-to-day running of their charities.

Bono and US activist and attorney Bobby Shriver co-founded ONE Campaign in 2004. The charity fights against poverty and champion’s justice and equality. It boasts a membership of more than 9 million members and has teams in Johannesburg, Abuja, Nigeria, and other major cities around the world.