Making Things Go Right?
Scientology's involvement in South African social affairs
v1.0 - Last updated 12-4-96 by Chris Owen
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References to Scientology's involvement in South African social affairs are
common fixtures in the movement's magazines and newsletters; the Church of
Scientology obviously takes a good deal of pride in its activities in South
Africa. According to Scientology President Heber Jentzsch, the Church was
helping underprivileged black South Africans
"well before the walls of apartheid came down or the world had
even noticed."
["The President Answers Your Questions", Scientology Internet
site]
It was seemingly on the back of this claim that the "Reverend" Jentzsch
took pride of place in the 1995 opening of the Nelson R. Mandela
Multicultural Center, Los Angeles, California. The Center is a body
supported by the ANC, the South African Government, the Methodist Church
and members of the US Congress. It provides educational and social
programmes for coloured people (principally in the US, one would assume)
and also commemorates the long struggle to win civil rights for black South
Africans. The Church of Scientology appears to have played a significant
role in establishing the Center and it was in recognition of this that the
Reverend W.J. Bellamy presented Jentzsch with the Center's first annual
Humanitarian Award, inscribed with a commendation describing Jentszch as
"an outstanding developer of character in men and women, and
freedom for all, and a champion for the grassroots people."
[Freedom magazine, Nov 1995, p. 39]
The US November 1995 edition of the flagship Scientology magazine Freedom
carries a full-page story on the the Center, but includes a revealing
comment:
"The Church of Scientology has long supported the fight for human
rights in South Africa, starting in the 1970s and proceeding to
this day."
[Freedom magazine, Nov 1995 (US edition), p. 39]
As the South African Church was founded in 1957, what was happening before
the 1970s? The answer, as discussed in Scientology's Fight for Apartheid,
is that both the Church and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, were openly in
favour of apartheid and offered active assistance to the government to
crush a civil rights movement characterised by Hubbard as Moscow-inspired
agitation of simple-minded blacks. It is somewhat ironic that Hubbard
himself was a fan of Hendrik Verwoerd, the man who imprisoned Mandela, and
wrote secret letters to him praising the implementation of grand apartheid.
From the wording of the line quoted above, it is quite probable that this
is known to the writers of Freedom magazine; it is inconceivable that
senior members of the Church such as Jentszch are unaware, and racist
material is still in use in Scientology teaching.
The mention of the 1970s is doubly significant, for it was around this time
that the promotion of so-called "secular Scientology" began in earnest. As
in other countries around the world, the involvement of the Church of
Scientology in broad society has two thrusts. The first and perhaps most
obvious is carried out by the Church itself. The spearhead of such work
appears to be a body called the Volunteer Ministers Corps. Although the
Church has in the past claimed that the Corps is not just the Church by
another name, it is patently obvious that it is an explicitly
Scientological organisation, "armed with the spiritual technology of Mr.
Hubbard". Indeed, its members have posed for photographs while wearing
T-shirts emblazoned with "Church of Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps".
What do Volunteer Ministers actually do?
"Volunteer Ministers are individuals trained ... to deliver
Scientology technology like touch assists, counselling and so
on."
[The Winner issue 2 (Oct 1979), p. 2]
This has included anything from high-profile disaster relief work to much
more low-key local efforts. After the 1995 Oklahoma City bomb and the Kobe
earthquake, the Church bussed in large numbers of Scientologists to assist
in the clear-up work; Scientology magazines show photographs of Volunteer
Ministers presenting bemused chiefs of emergency services with copies of
the 900-page Scientology Handbook. At the other end of the scale, Volunteer
Ministers have been involved in South African prisons, hospitals and even
educational activities for the ANC Women's League. The November 1995
edition of Freedom magazine stated that
"in South Africa, Volunteer Minister Coordinator Liliane Kihm
works with 100 Volunteer Ministers on projects which include
workshops for the African National Congress Party's Women's
League, lectures and classes on communication and how to study
for prison staff, park clean-ups, hospital work, and literacy
workshops in libraries in Johannesburg and townships."
[Freedom magazine (US edition), Nov 1995)]
It should be remembered that the techniques advocated by Volunteer
Ministers such as Ms Kihm are pure, unadulterated, 100% Scientology
(anything else would be treated as a disciplinary offence). Whether this
was made clear is, as we shall see, another question entirely. It may also
be significant that Scientology's founder, L. Ron Hubbard, regarded
prisons, hospitals and education as being good areas for what he called
"procurement" (i.e. recruitment).
Apart from the activities of the Volunteer Ministers Corps, the Church of
Scientology does not appear to perform a great deal of significant social
work. It has certainly made gestures towards the local community - for
instance, sponsoring the Christmas lights of Clearwater, Florida or holding
medieval tournaments in the grounds of Saint Hill Manor, Sussex. The
separation of church and state in many Western countries limits the direct
contact which the Church of Scientology can have with public bodies, and
the poor public image of the Church is an even bigger barrier.
It is probably for these reasons that the Church of Scientology employs a
second, somewhat unusual, method of involving itself in broad society.
Since the 1950s, scores of apparently unrelated corporate identities have
been created by Hubbard and by the Church for motives discussed in part 2.
One would not immediately associate the Church of Scientology with
organisations such as the Concerned Businessmen's Association, Allied
Scientists of the World, the Gerus Society or Operations and Transport
Services Limited. Nonetheless, all are or were established by Hubbard or by
the Church for purposes directly related to the primary concerns of the
Church.
The Church still has a bewildering array of corporate identities and
affiliates - some of which have even sued in attempts to conceal their
Scientology links - but in recent years, a slightly clearer corporate
structure has emerged. In South Africa, five principal Scientology-related
organisations are listed in the 1992 edition of What Is Scientology? as
being present in the country. These organisations each concern themselves
with a distinct aspect of social affairs. They were established mostly in
the 1970s by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology. The five
organisations, their areas of concern and locations in South Africa are as
follows:
Organisation Focus
Citizens' Commission for Human Rights (CCHR) Mental Health
Based in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria.
Criminon Crime
Based in Belleule.
Education Alive Education
ABLE (parent body) shares office with Church of Scientology
[African] Continental Liason Office, Johannesburg. Education
Alive based in separate office in Jo'burg.
The Way To Happiness Foundation Public Morals
Shares Jo'burg office with Education Alive.
World Institute of Scientology Enterprises (WISE) Management
Main office shared with Church of Scientology [African]
Continental Liason Office, Johannesburg. Also has an office
in Bryanstown.
We will discuss the motives of these organisations in the next part of this
article, but for now let's consider their individual activities in South
Africa.
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CCHR has a very high profile within Scientology. According to What Is
Scientology? (1992 edition):
"From the United States to South Africa, Australia to Germany,
the Church has relentlessly exposed psychiatric criminality and
oppression - all in pursuit of a civilization "where man is free
to rise to greater heights," as Scientology states in its aims."
[What Is Scientology (1992), p. 384]
The Church of Scientology's campaign against psychiatry in South Africa was
perhaps rather more justified than in other countries; there is no doubt
that genuine abuses have occured on a large scale. The Spring 1995 edition
of Scientology Today carried an article entitled "CCHR: In the Forefront of
Human Rights", and is about CCHR's annual anniversary event at the
Celebrity Centre International in February 1995. It states:
"Jan Eastgate [President of CCHR International] spoke of
psychiatric atrocities uncovered in South Africa. In 1976,
Freedom [magazine] and CCHR were the first to expose appalling
psychiatric "slave labor" camps, in which 10,000 black patients
were kept in degraded conditions with the majority sleeping on
mats on concrete floors. Electric shock was administered without
anesthetic - to black inmates only. After the exposés, the
suppressive apartheid government issued decrees forbidding
further exposure of such acts. All that has changed now, and the
new government has thrown open the door to investigate these
abuses.
Eastgate also briefed the attendees on her recent visit to South
Africa, where she worked with the new political leadership to
investigate and help bring to justice those responsible for
abuses in that country and ensure they never happen again.
Information brought to light as a result of her trip showed that
between 1975 and 1989, 1,451 women, many of them between 10 and
19 years of age, had been sterilized at the hands of South
African psychiatrists".
[Scientology Today, Spring 1995, p. 7]
History and public relations appear to part company at this point, however,
for according to What Is Scientology, "a shocked South African population
watched in fascination" as "the story was angrily denied by the South
African health authorities", and
"the exposure of these grim revelations in Church publications
brought an understandable wave of public outrage, both in South
Africa and overseas."
[What Is Scientology (1992) p. 388, (1978) pp. 173-174]
One suspects that in 1976 the South African population had rather more on
its mind than Scientology's allegations of psychiatric brutality. As one
participant on the Internet discussion forum alt.religion.scientology put
it in a 1995 debate,
"In 1976, we had the infamous Soweto riots, where all those
children were killed. The atrocities in the mental hospitals
weren't even an issue, much less exposed by CCHR. This is pure PR
posturing - difficult to disprove, because there are no official
records of those things.
Jan Eastgate [President of CCHR] ... made a trip to SA a while
ago... Those women may have been sterilized, yes. But Jan did not
work with our new political leadership (hah!), and Scientology
was VERY quiet during the Apartheid years - they NEVER ONCE made
any statement that they believed apartheid was wrong."
Nonetheless, the South African Government saw fit to ban the Scientology
magazine Peace and Freedom (known simply as Freedom in the rest of the
English-speaking world). What Is Scientology? says of this:
"Having published articles critical of psychiatry in South
Africa, [Peace and Freedom became labeled an "undesirable
publication" and was so declared by a government notice published
on the 1st August 1975, under the auspices of Section 13 of the
Publications Act of 1974 ... The Publications [Appeal] Board came
to the conclusion [on 26th April 1976] that although
psychiatrists had been criticised, they were not a group as such
to constitute a "section of the inhabitants of the republic"
capable of being damaged as a group ... and ruled that the
newspaper was not an undesirable publication."
[What Is Scientology? (1978), p. 174]
Although the Attorney General subsequently prosecuted the publishers of
Peace and Freedom, all charges were dropped in September 1977. CCHR appears
to have headed the attack against South African psychiatry since then; a
recent pamphlet from the organisation, entitled Creating Racism:
Psychiatry's Betrayal In The Guise Of Help alleges that the real cause of
apartheid was actually South African psychiatrists and psychotherapists. (A
four-page chapter solemnly describes how Hendrik Verwoerd's early career as
a lecturer in psychology at Stellenbosch University prepared the ground for
his later apartheid policies. One wonders if Hubbard was aware of this
when, in a Scientology training lecture, he publicly described Verwoerd as
"a great guy".)
CCHR also appears to have made a number of "field trips" amongst the
mentally ill of South Africa. The value of some of these is open to
question - for instance, giving "touch assists" (a Scientological version
of "laying on healing hands") and emetics to mentally handicapped blacks, a
project lauded in issue 8 of the Scientology magazine The Winner. Precisely
what giving emetics to mentally handicapped blacks was supposed to achieve
is not particularly clear.
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Criminon appears to be one of the less successful Scientology offshoots. It
has a low profile compared to the others and appears to be inactive in many
countries where it ostensibly has a presence. I have not come across any
references to Criminon activities in South Africa, despite the presence of
an office in Johannesburg. This does not mean that Criminon is not active
in South Africa, of course, but considering that the country has one of the
world's highest rates of violent crime it is curious that Criminon seems to
be so quiet.
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Education Alive is apparently regarded by the Church of Scientology as the
jewel in its South African crown. What Is Scientology? (1978 edition)
declares that
"One of the most rewarding and satisfying expansions in the use
of L. Ron Hubbard's study technology has occurred in Africa ...
the light of understanding is shining in parts of that dark
continent and will soon shine even more brightly as more and more
of her people learn and apply the study technology of L. Ron
Hubbard to their lives and education systems."
[What Is Scientology (1978), p. 95]
According to the same book, the Soweto riots of 1976 were caused by
"disruptive students":
"Somewhere along the line standards have slipped. No longer do
children look up to their teachers, nor, in too many cases do
they respect any form of authority. Headmasters dismiss instances
of students attacking teachers as "nothing unusual".
In South Africa the struggles between black students and the
[educational] authorities erupted into bloody slaughter with
thousands of black children boycotting schools, police and
antiriot squads encamping in black townships and student leaders
and school children being arrested."
[What Is Scientology (1978), p. 92]
In other words, the Soweto riots were caused by a lack of respect for
teachers, which Hubbard's Study Technology would have prevented!
The role of Education Alive is made clear in another Scientology
publication, the internal staff magazine The Winner, which states that EA
is "the South African group which is getting LRH [L. Ron Hubbard] study
tech into the society". EA is part of the South African branch of the
international Scientology organisation Association for Better Living and
Education (ABLE), which tends to operate through subsidiary organisations -
allegedly to better disguise its links with Scientology. Its efforts to
introduce Hubbard's "study technology" into South African schools have been
lauded in Scientology publications since the late 1960s (and probably
earlier). They remain a mainstay of the Church's efforts to propagate
Hubbardian thought in South Africa.
Scientology publications are studded with references to South African
individuals and organisations being "handled" (or recruited) by
Scientologists and persuaded to invest in Scientology techniques. The
now-defunct Scientology magazine The Winner, produced for the (later
notorious) Guardian's Office, used to run a column called "Good News
Dateline". These are a selection of its South African stories:
* "Soweto, famous South African "trouble spot" is receiving Education
Alive's helping hand. The township's mayor and councilmen recently
completed a tremendous successful [sic] study course, with
far-reaching effects."
[The Winner, issue 2 (Nov 1979), p. 3]
* "The Durban Mirror newspaper carries a monthly column on success
through Scientology. 'Scientology - A Fact of Life' was one recent
headline... and, in the last five years on South Africa there have
been close on 5,000 graduates from the study tech programme, Education
Alive. Ron's study tech is now being applied from Cape Town to
Zimbabwe!"
[The Winner, issue 8 (Dec 1980), p. 5]
* "The Mayor of Blacktown, a community in South Africa, is so convinced
of the value of study tech that he personally is contacting local
businesses to raise funds for the teachers of the town to be
instructed in the LRH Study Tech."
[The Winner, issue 16 (Nov-Dec 1981), p. 5]
Although its public statements are frequently liberal with the facts, there
seems little doubt that the Church of Scientology has indeed invested a
great deal of time and money in getting Study Technology into use in South
Africa. So far it only appears to have succeeded on a limited scale, in
private schools and individual classes, despite the claims of Scientology
that it has educated "1.5 million" underprivileged black children. (This
figure varies between 1, 1.5 and 2 million - even Scientology publications
do not seem to be able to agree on a precise figure). An Australian whose
son had been involved in Scientology was justifiably suspicious of these
claims and wrote to the South African Embassy in Canberra to clarify
matters. He received this fairly definitive reply:
South African Embassy,
Canberra
ac 8/74
7 April 1992
Mr. Tony McClelland
[private address deleted]
Dear Mr. McClelland,
Re: Church of Scientology
Your fax ref tm0506 dated 5 June 1991 regarding possible Church
of Scientology in South Afriian school education refers. [sic]
The matter has been taken up with the Department of Education and
Culture as well as the Department of Education and Training who
are responsible for school education in South Africa.
Both denied any knowledge of the Church's involvement in formal
education in South Africa. According to the Department of
Education and Training, the Church of Scientology tried to use a
front organisation in 1989, the so called "Education Alive" but
was not allowed to get involved in the Department's schools.
I am afraid their claim of teaching 1.5 million children in South
Africa to read is just another fabrication.
Yours sincerely,
Johan Klopper
Second Secretary
The effectiveness of Study Technology is disputed. Although Scientologists
and ABLE contend that it is a revolutionary leap forward which can make
people "super-literate", the evidence for this is contradictory. ABLE and
mainstream Scientology literature provide plenty of examples of "Success
Stories" - those on Scientology courses have to write a success story on
completion of such a course or risk being penalised. However, I am aware of
no reputable educational body which endorses the validity of Hubbard's
teaching methods; What Is Scientology (1992 edition) lists only five
schools in the entire world which use Study Technology for every pupil, the
great majority of whom are the children of Scientologists anyway; and
results from those schools reportedly suggest that pupils taught with Study
Technology do rather worse than the average. Applied Scholastics, the US
equivalent of Education Alive, ran an experimental Study Technology
programme at Centennial Senior High School in Compton, California in
1987-88. The programme was cut in 1988 by district officials following
concerns at Applied Scholastics' promotional activities. According to
Acting Superintendent Elisa Sanchez, the subsequent claims of remarkable
success made by Applied Scholastics were entirely "unsubstantiated".
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The Way to Happiness Foundation (WHF) is devoted chiefly to the
distribution of a book, The Way to Happiness, which Hubbard wrote in 1980.
What Is Scientology? (1992 edition) calls it "a nonreligious moral code
that provides fundamental guides to behavior" [p. 833]. It contains
unintentionally ironic admonitions such as "Don't Be Promiscuous" (Hubbard
is said to have been "freely available for sex"), "Don't Do Anything
Illegal" (Hubbard and his wife were named by a US court in 1978 as
instigators of a systematic criminal campaign) and "Respect The Religious
Beliefs of Others" (Hubbard believed that Christianity and Islam had been
implanted by evil aliens and devised routines to "flatten" them). Some of
the advice is so obvious that one wonders why Hubbard bothered to spell it
out:
"The way to happiness does not include murdering your friends,
your family or yourself being murdered."
The Way to Happiness has been heavily promoted by the Church of
Scientology. According to Church promotional material - the accuracy of
which I have not been able to confirm - thousands of copies of the book
have been ordered by large public organisations: 5,000 copies for the
Moscow City Police Department, 30,000 copies for the Colombian Army and
(apparently the biggest order so far), 114,000 copies were distributed in
1992 to every officer in the South African Police, supposedly on the orders
of the police high command. The WHF also promotes general "social
betterment" campaigns. In Soweto township, it launched a campaign supported
by "the largest food chain in the country and with two major labor unions"
to "Safeguard and Improve Your Environment". In Pietermaritsburg, it is
claimed, a WHF campaign "was highly successful in easing racial tensions"
[What Is Scientology? (1992), p. 434].
The WHF does not publicise its umbilical connection with Scientology - its
Hubbard-derived material is licensed from central Scientology
organisations, the Religious Technology Center and Author Services
Incorporated - and the book at the centre of its activities is said to have
been written by Hubbard as "an individual and is not part of any religious
doctrine". Neither the book, nor WHF literature, make any mention of
Scientology. The book's brief biography of Hubbard somehow fails to mention
his 35-year full-time career as founder of Scientology.
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WISE, the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises, is virtually unique
in that it is virtually the only Scientology offshoot which acknowledges
its Scientology links in its name. It was established in the 1970s to
promote the use of Hubbard's "Management Technology", originally developed
to run the Church of Scientology but adapted for use in the outside world
by removing all refences to Scientology. WISE tends to operate through
subsidiary organisations such as Businesswise in South Africa,
disseminating "Management Technology" to businesses and other
organisations. Like the Way to Happiness Foundation, WISE subsidiaries
claim no direct links with Scientology.
A number of South African companies and organisations have reportedly used
Management Technology. The Scientology magazine The Winner announced in
1980 that the chemical company Cyanamid was to begin using Management
Technology. More recently, the Inkatha Freedom Party instituted a régime of
Management Technology in the run-up to the first multi-racial elections.
The Johannesburg newspaper The Weekly Mail and Guardian conducted an
investigation into the links between the IFP and Businesswise, the South
African subsidiary of WISE, in late 1994. Under the headline "IFF's curious
Scientology friends", it wrote:
A business consultancy linked to the Scientology movement advised
IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, report Stefaans Brummer and
Farouk Chothia
FOLLOWERS of Scientology -- the highly controversial American
"religion" -- have been courting Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu
Buthelezi and his Inkatha Freedom Party.
The IFP, which is well-known for its reliance on outsiders for
political and organisational advice, contracted a Johannesburg
close corporation, Businesswise Management Consultants -
described by a scientologist source as a "Scientology front" -
before the elections to help with the administrative
restructuring of the party.
Businesswise was brought to the IFP last year on the
recommendation of Natal businessman Laurence Anthony, a close
associate and advisor of Buthelezi. Anthony on Thursday confirmed
he had "studied Scientology" but denied it was "a big spook". He
said Businesswise had worked with him until April 27 in "evolving
an organisational plan" for the IFP, and that he still provided a
"business service" to the party free of charge.
Anthony said some IFP leaders, including secretary general Ziba
Jiyane, were aware of his Scientology links. "They have no
problem with it."
He described it as "patent nonsense" that Scientology groups
operate "deviously".
Businesswise is licenced by the World Institute of Scientology
Enterprises (Wise) International to "disseminate administrative
technology" developed by the founder of Scientology, L Ron
Hubbard.
Trademarks used by Wise International are held by the Religious
Technology Centre (RTC) which, according to Scientology
literature, "is the protector of the Scientology religion ... The
purpose of RTC is to safeguard the proper use of trademarks, to
protect the public and to make sure that the powerful technology
of Dianetics and Scientology remains in good hands and is
properly used".
Businesswise executive director Alan Murray this week denied his
company had "anything to do with Scientology", but acknowledged:
"If you want to be devious you can say there is a connection."
He said Businesswise was franchised by Wise International to
deliver a management system developed by Hubbard, but that
Hubbard wrote widely on matters other than religion. "It is just
a regular management system used right across the world."
[...]
Murray said Businesswise had made contact with the IFP last year
through Anthony and senior IFP figures including MZ Khumalo (of
Inkathagate fame) and Jiyane.
He said Businesswise had a six-month contract with the party,
ending shortly before the elections, to help restructure their
administrative structures. He said he was still "very interested
in how they are progressing".
To find out why Businesswise may be so interested in the progess of the
IFP, click below to continue on to part 2.
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On to part 2: The Motives of South African Scientology
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v1.0 - Last updated 12-4-96 by Chris Owen
[Image]
co@nvg.unit.no
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