‘My hair fell out from the stress of all the bullying’

IT WAS a big move for a single mother with a young autistic son, but Amahle was excited to move from the UK to join ONE’s management team in Johannesburg in June 2012.

Shortly before Amahle departed, Jamie Drummond, the charity’s co-founder, warned her of ‘problems’ in the South Africa office. But brimming with confidence, Amahle (not her real name) assumed she would be okay.

Instead, she left the charity 18 months later a broken woman. She says she was on medication for depression, struggling to function with hair falling out from stress due to bullying – and feeling dreadfully guilty for the devastating impact on her son.

Some incidents can sound small: being ordered to fetch her boss’s bag each day, make tea in a particular way, or serve drinks at parties at Moyo’s house.

But the daily drip-drip of abuse, bullying phone calls, dealing with suppliers in tears after run-ins with her bosses, demeaning orders, public dressings-down and shouting ground her down. ‘It crushes you emotionally, mentally and physically,’ she said.

Yet she was trapped: ONE was not registered or paying tax in South Africa, so she had to work illegally on a tourist visa. This made it difficult to settle down or find another job.

‘It was so hypocritical,’ she said. ‘But everything we spoke about was hypocritical.

‘We were talking about female empowerment while they were breaking families.’

She is especially angry that nothing was done despite complaints to head offices in London and Washington. ‘The abuse was reported over and over again. Not one person within the organisation cared.

‘If this had happened in the UK or US, heads would have rolled. But it was like we were meant to be grateful for having jobs. We were just black Africans.’