Tutu follows Driver in ditching charity role

0 Mercy Corps investigated 11 employees over allegations Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu said yesterday that he will no longer be a global ambassador for Oxfam after allegations that senior staff members in crisis zones paid for sex among the desperate people the group was meant to serve.

A statement from the office of the South African former archbishop said he was “deeply disappointed by allegations of immorality and possible criminality”.

Mr Tutu’s office said it had written to Oxfam “to inform them of his retirement as a global ambassador”.

The 86-year-old rare- ly makes public statements because of health problems.

British actress Minnie Driver and Senegalese musician Baaba Maal also have quit as a celebrity ambassadors for Oxfam.

On Twitter, Driver said: “All I can tell you about this awful revelation about Oxfam is that I am devastated.

“Devastated for the women who were used by people sent there to help them [and] devastated by the response of an organisation that I have been raising awareness for since I was nine years old.”

Driver had attended previously attended high-profile fund-raising events for Oxfam in Los Angeles and New York, and travelled to Cambodia and Thailand for the Make Trade Fair campaign.

Her profile on the charity’s website said she had been a spokesperson on trade justice and making world trade rules work for developing nations.

In a statement, Driver further explained her decision, saying she was “nothing short of horrified” by the allegations against Oxfam International.

The statement continued: “I certainly will not let the abhorrent mistakes of a troubling organisation stop me or anyone else from working with good people in this space to support a population of human beings around the world that needs our help.”