Embarrassing, Dave: South African Scientology org gets electricity shut off for unpaid bill

Hey, we were really only joking when we said that Scientology’s fortunes were so dim, leader David Miscavige would have a hard time keeping the lights on in all of the “Ideal Orgs” he’s been opening around the world.

But apparently it was no joke in Johannesburg, where News24 is reporting that city officials this morning cut off the electricity to the Scientology Ideal Org there for non-payment of its bill, which had reached 877,000 Rand (which is about $49,000).

The city’s power authority was apparently fed up with businesses that had not been paying bills and so they went on a very visible campaign to collect.

Besides the Church of Scientology on Hunter Road, other targets included a sport club and a shopping center.

Since 2003, church leader David Miscavige has pushed Scientologists to raise millions to create the new “Ideal Orgs,” replacing less expensive previous facilities. Evidence suggests that after an initial boom, these facilities sink back into relative disuse, and we have wondered how they are going to pay their bills.

We have to think that the Johannesburg org is not the only one that has struggled with this problem.

And we hand it to city officials there for taking the initiative.

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