Officials Honor Church’s Good Works

Ward Councilwoman for Kensington Carol Milner spoke of her delight when she heard the Church of Scientology was moving to her district. Having already worked with church members on their Drug-Free Marshals anti-drug program, she told the audience, “I was very impressed by their simple, effective and relentless drive to bring about change by preventing drug use and dealing, through education and peer pressure.”

Dr. Ben Ngubane (gesturing), South Africa’s Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, with Church of Scientology International President Heber C. Jentzsch.

Taken by the aesthetics of the new church’s new home, she said, “If one is best known and judged by actions, then I can safely say that your neighbors and this district as a whole are lucky to have you.”

Johannesburg Area Police Commissioner Oswald Reddy, a 20-year veteran and leader of South African law enforcement, followed with a recounting of his first contact with Scientologists. At his first meeting with a group of Church members, they told him of a simple procedure called a “Touch Assist” that could help alleviate the stress virtually every police officer goes through.

Wanting firsthand experience, he requested and received his first touch assist. “I switched off my cell phone, something I probably haven’t done since I bought it,” he explained. “I told my staff to hold all calls and they nearly fainted. Ten minutes later I felt relaxed.”

The Commissioner soon notified all Station Commissioners in Joburg of the techniques in The Scientology Handbook, urging them to avail themselves of assists to enjoy the same relief from stress he had experienced.

He then recognized Criminon, a program used inside prisons, based on L. Ron Hubbard’s discoveries in the field of criminal reform. Said Reddy, “...one of the policeman’s greatest frustrations is to capture a criminal, ensure that he goes to jail and in a very short time he is back on the streets, an even more hardened criminal than before.”

Compare this with the dramatic effects Criminon is having on South Africa, he told his audience: “Not one of the prisoners who have done the Criminon program has since returned to prison.”