On 3 February 2025, the  Anglican Church in South Africa (ACSA) published a report[*] examining its failure to respond adequately to a warning from the Church of England about the abuse perpetrated by John Smyth. The report makes recommendations on ACSA’s safeguarding process.

A seven-page Summary to the full Report (29pp) has been produced and on 4 February 2025, Archbishop Thabo issued a Statement on Safeguarding in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) (6pp) in which he apologized for the Church’s failures over abuse.

In her response to the ACSA Report, the Church of England’s Lead Safeguarding Bishop, Joanne Grenfell, said inter alia:

“[…] The Makin Review already made clear that information about Smyth’s abuse was reported to the police (on a number of occasions) and to ACSA. ACSA’s own review confirms today that they did receive this information from the Diocese of Ely in 2013. While they state that they have not found any evidence of abuse by Smyth within their churches, they do admit that the Diocese of Cape Town’s communication of the danger which Smyth posed between when they were informed of that danger (2013) and when he died (2018) fell short of what the circumstances demanded […]”.

[*] Archbishop’s Panel of Inquiry pinpoints church’s failures on Smyth abuse report.