U2 frontman Bono has apologized for failing to adequately protect workers amid renewed allegations of verbal and sexual abuse at the charity he co-founded.
“I need to take some responsibility for that,” Bono said in an apology published by The Mail on Sunday.
The singer apologized to the former employees of the ONE Campaign’s Johannesburg operation, who alleged on social media and in a British newspaper that they were subjected to bullying, abuse and, in one case, attempted sexual coercion from late 2011 to 2015.
Bono said he had been aware of “concerns about low morale and poor management in this office but nothing along the lines of what emerged recently,” The New York Times reported.
“The poorest people in the poorest places being bullied by their circumstance is the reason we set up ONE,” Bono said. “So to discover last November that there were serious and multiple allegations of bullying in our office in Johannesburg left me and the ONE board reeling and furious. You question the whole reason you’re doing this.”
“The head office failed to protect those employees, and I need to take some responsibility for that,” he added. “In fact, if they would agree, I would like to meet them and apologize in person.”
Seven former employees have started taking legal action against ONE, seeking 3.6 million pounds, or about $5 million, in damages, a charity spokesman told The Times. Bono was not named in the filing.
The allegations, which first surfaced in November, included one woman who claimed to have been demoted after she refused to have sex with a Tanzanian MP. Others said they were called names, and some said their manager put them to work on domestic tasks in her home, the charity’s CEO and president said in a statement Friday.
“The overall evidence from our investigation was sufficient for me to conclude that we needed to own an institutional failure and ensure that our organization has in place the systems, policies and practices needed so that this never happens again,” the statement said. “I have personally extended my deepest apologies to the former employees who shared their stories with us. We have offered to support them with personal and professional services. And we have assured them this kind of behavior will never again be tolerated at ONE.”
The ONE Campaign, an international nonprofit, was created in 2004 to fight extreme poverty and preventable diseases, particularly in Africa.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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