Jani Allan

Jani Allan
Born	Isabel Janet Allan[1] (1952-09-11) 11 September 1952 United Kingdom
Alma mater	University of the Witwatersrand Roedean School (South Africa)
Occupation	Journalist and Broadcaster
Religion	Christian
Spouse(s)	Gordon Schachat (1982-84) Dr Peter Kulish (2002-2005)

Jani Allan (born 11 September 1952) is a South African columnist and broadcaster. She became a household name^[2] as a columnist for the centrist newspaper, the Sunday Times where she worked between 1980 and 1989 publishing columns such as Just Jani, Radio Jani, Jani Allan's Week, Face to Face and Jani at large. At the height of her fame, her newspaper commissioned a Gallup poll in 1987 to find "the most admired person in South Africa", she came first. She later became the subject of press interest over affair allegations with an interviewee, the late right-wing political leader Eugène Terre'Blanche. Allan denied the allegations and in 1989, fled to London after she was the target of an assassination attempt by a splinter cell group when they bombed her Johannesburg apartment. In 1992, she filed an unsuccessful libel suit against the broadcaster Channel 4 over her depiction in Nick Broomfield's 1991 documentary, The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife. She returned to South Africa in 1996, publishing a web column and presenting a radio show on Cape Talk. After an extended absence, 2013 marked Allan's return to the media frame and the announcement of an interactive biography project.^[3]

Early life

Allan was born the daughter of an Italian expeditionary and a Rhodesian socialite.^[4] She was adopted by a wealthy British-South African couple, John Murray Allan and Janet Fry at age one month old. Janet Fry's father was a cabinet minister in Ian Smith's Rhodesia.^[5] The family briefly lived in England but her Scottish father was advised by doctors to move to a warmer climate. Allan's adoptive father, a former editor of an Edinburgh newspaper died when she was 18 months old. Her mother was an antiques dealer. Allan was brought up in the Johannesburg suburb of Bryanston attended Roedean School and matriculated at Greenside High School.^[3] She is a trained classical pianist and recorded a televised piano concerto as a child,^[6] and made her debut with Johannesburg symphony orchestra at the age of 10.^[3][7] She obtained a licenciate in music.^[5] She also attained a BA in fine art^[8] and honours degrees in English literature and history of art at the University of the Witwatersrand.^[9]

Career

Prior to becoming a journalist, she worked as a photographic model^[10] and an English and Art teacher at Wynberg Boys' High School, Bryanston High School and Sevenoaks Finishing School.^[11][12]

1980-1989 Sunday Times

Allan was employed by Sunday Times editor Tertius Myburgh on the strength of four music reviews.^[8] Allan would go on to enjoy considerable success as a popular and respected^[13][14] columnist for the newspaper.

In 1980 Sunday Times Lifestyle began publishing her "Just Jani" column, an interview-based column with public figures from diverse fields such as entertainment, sport, business, art and politics.^[12] She interviewed several international celebrities for the newspaper such as Bill Haley,^[15] Goldie Hawn, Barry Manilow, Ursula Andress and Oliver Reed.^[9] She also interviewed several entertainment figures in South Africa, such as the comedian Pieter-Dirk Uys, director Jamie Uys, actress Taubie Kushlick, singer Sonja Herholdt and actress Moira Lister. Sporting figures such as Danie Craven and Mike Weaver were also the subjects of interviews.^[12] In the art world, she interviewed Vladimir Tretchikoff, who would later invite her to sit for a portrait.^[12] At the request of another acclaimed artist and interviewee, Walter Battiss, she agreed to become a resident and official writer of the famed Fook Island, an "island of the imagination".^[12] She also published several pieces and interviews with diverse figures such as the UFO contactee Elizabeth Klarer.^[16][17]

In 1983 she published Face Value, a selection of "Just Jani" columns. Allan provided background details in the collection, detailing the reactions of some interviewees to their stories and evaluations by Allan herself. The photographer was Andrzej Sawa.^[12] In the main body of the Sunday Times newspaper, she also began published Radio Jani, her music reviews.

In 1986 she began publishing Jani Allan's Week in the main body of the newspaper. She would report on glamorous assignments such as parties hosted by South Africa's elite. Her page would also usually include an interview with a celebrity figure. Her strong public profile was confirmed when she was voted "the most admired person in South Africa." in a Gallup poll commissioned by the Sunday Times in 1987.^[18] Her eminence in South African media has led some to consider her to have hold the platform of "South Africa's leading columnist" at her peak in the 1980s.^[19]

In 1988 her bosses replaced Jani Allan's week with "Face To Face", a profile column whereby Allan would continue to interview celebrity figures but also branch out to more political figures.^[14] Political subjects were diverse, with guests such as Magnus Malan, Beyers Naude, Pik Botha,^[20] Eugène Terre'Blanche, Winnie Mandela, Denis Worrall and Mangosuthu Buthelezi.^{[8][21][22][23]} In January 1989, Allan published an interview with herself titled Jani by Jani.^[24]

Myburgh described her journalistic style as "highly individual" and cited New Journalism as an influence.^[12] In the 1980s, the Sunday Times was Africa's largest newspaper with a circulation of 3 million.^[12] Allan also represented the newspaper as a guest on several South African television programmes.^[25] During her tenure at the Sunday Times, she also contributed features for the Sunday Times Colour Magazine, which was relaunched in 1981.^[12][26]

Assassination attempt and emigration

Following an assassination attempt on her life in 1989,^[27] secret service agents advised her to leave South Africa. She resumed work for the Johannesburg newspaper from their London office. In London, Allan launched a new column for the newspaper titled Jani at large with the tag-line Jani Allan - reporting from London. After six weeks in London, Allan returned to work at the Johannesburg office. After a week back at work, Allan was asked to hand in her resignation as she had "become the story". Allan's tenure at the newspaper ended in September 1989.^[28] Allan's final piece published by the Sunday Times was an interview with Mandy Rice-Davies for the Jani at large column.

1990-1996 London, Scope

By 1990 Allan had become a regular columnist for the South African weekly magazine, Scope, launching the self-titled Jani Allan column.^[29] At the peak of its success, Scope had the largest circulation of any English-language magazine in South Africa.^[30] An article written by Allan on 5 October 1990, volume 25, number 20 in the magazine was presented by the MP Dries Bruwer to the South African parliament in 1991 in support of a legislation issue.^[31][32]

In 1990 she also worked as an occasional society columnist^[33] for the London Sunday Times, writing about prestigious social events she attended on assignment.^[34][35] She also interviewed celebrities such as Charlton Heston^[36] and published opinion pieces for the newspaper.^[37]

She later worked for the SABC broadcaster and journalist, Cliff Saunders's London press agency and continued publishing articles for various publications. These included the London Evening Standard where she published reports on her former inquisitor George Carman's latest case, Carman was defending The People against a libel case taken by Mona Bauwens.^[38] She also wrote for The Spectator where she memorably described Carman as "a small bewigged ferret".^[39][40]

The book that had been embroiled in controversy over its content during the libel case was titled White Sunset, based on right-wing groups in South Africa. It was alluded to in 1988 during her association with Terre'Blanche. In 1992 her agent described it to the British media as "a very serious look at the break-up of white society in South Africa" which features "fly-on-the-wall reportage".^[4] Several chapters had been seen and cover art had been developed but the project was ultimately not pursued.^[41][42] She had also completed Fast Cars to Ventersdorp, a satirical look at her involvement with Terre'Blanche. It was compared to the style of Tom Sharpe and in the foreword she explained that she had written it because, "I want to leave the past behind me."^[4]

In 1995, she gave a much publicized primetime interview to SABC.^[43] Allan continued as a guest writer on many British publications, often appearing as a voice on South African politics. In the wake of his state visit to the UK in July 1996, the Daily Express published a piece by Allan critical of president Nelson Mandela.^[44] Allan returned to South Africa in the same year to be with her mother who was dying.

1996-2001 Cape Talk, TV, CyberJani

Her return to South Africa in 1996 was marked by an appearance on the cover of Style magazine and an in-depth interview.

In the same year she took up a position as a host on Cape Talk Radio, a Cape Town-based radio show and launched her show "Jani's World", which aired on Friday evenings between 9 p.m. and midnight. The guests were from various fields and backgrounds, and often included New Age guru-types by telephone from the United States.^[45] Allan also interviewed conservative figures such as Constand Viljoen.^[46] The Mail & Guardian praised how the "“no guts no glory” content creates a refreshing, witty forum".^[47]

Soon after establishing a radio show in Cape Town, she was contracted by MWEB to launch the website "CyberJani" with a weekly column, letters page and live chatline.^[48] The statement mission of the column was to provide “all the truth that is unfit to print and equally offensive to the left, the right and the centre”.^[49] Allan tackled a variety of issues such as Affirmative action and public perceptions towards porn star Christi Lake.^[49] Allan also returned to her Just Jani roots, by interviewing celebrity figures for the column and reunited with Pieter-Dirk Uys.^[50]

In 1998, Allan appeared alongside Leonora Schmidt-Salomonson, the model of Chinese Girl in the SABC documentary film, Red Jacket to discuss the South Africa-based Russian artist, Vladimir Tretchikoff.^[51][52][53] Allan had previously interviewed the artist for her Sunday Times column over a decade earlier. In the same year she made another screen appearance as a Parisian model in the Pieter-Dirk Uys comedy, Going Down Gorgeous.^[54]

Allan's radio show, "Jani's World" became one of the station's most popular, but became controversial in September 1999 when Allan interviewed American right-winger Keith Johnson of the Militia of Montana. Johnson expressed several controversial and offensive opinions. Allan distanced herself from the view of Johnson and apologise for the offense to Jewish listeners.^[55][56] Due to the negative reaction from listeners, including the South African Jewish Board of Deputies^[57] the station was instructed to issue an apology two days later.

Toward's the end of her tenure, on-air she accused the station owner, Primedia, of nepotism and said that they found her show too controversial and politically incorrect.^[45] Her contract was terminated in October 2000, although no official reason was given; when questioned, the station manager, Lucia Venter, claimed that "All the announcers receive positive and negative feedback. Allan does not necessarily get more than others." ^[58]

Between 2000-2001, she was a speechwriter for Buthelezi.^[3][59][60]

2001-2009 US, radio appearances, freelance

She emigrated to the United States in 2001 and worked as a PR for the American inventor and author, Peter Kulish. She later appeared on a number of radio shows. On 17 June 2004, Jani Allan appeared as the guest on the conspiracy theorist Jeff Rense's show. During the show, which had a listenership of 7 million, Allan accused the South African government of a genocidal campaign against white Afrikaners, citing South African Farm Murders and she encouraged Americans to sponsor white Afrikaner "refugees".^[61] She later became the regular Friday night weekly guest-commentator. In 2005, she made several appearances on the Republican radio show Flipside with Robby Noel. She also appeared on the Larry Pratt show, discussing gun laws in place in South Africa.

Between 2004 and 2005 she contributed a number of columns to Christian and conservative, right-wing publications and sites such as the Jeff Rense website, AfricanCrisis, WorldNetDaily and she also published a number of columns on her personal blog.^[62] She has also been working as a published astrologer.^[14][63] In 2006, Allan's controversial Terre'Blanche column was republished in the book A Century of Sundays: 100 Years of Breaking News in the Sunday Times. The book included details of the libel case and reproduced reportage about the case.^[22]

2010-present media attention, return to journalism

Following Terre'Blanche's murder in April 2010 she was hounded by the international press for an interview. Eventually she gave a full length interview to Britain's Daily Mail. The interview was also republished in all Independent Online titles across South Africa. She revealed in the interview that she was already writing her memoirs. She also revealed that she works as a restaurant hostess in Lambertville, New Jersey.^[15]

In 2013 Allan was approached as a subject for a magazine article following "yesterday's media icons".^[64] Recently Allan has increased her media visibility, joining Twitter^[65][66] and publishing a new blog titled My Grilling Life.^[67] She regularly writes satirical pieces about her experiences in the restaurant where she works. She also concentrates on light social commentary and cultural themes, recently publishing a film review of Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby.^[68] Fellow South African journalists, David Bullard and Lin Sampson have expressed their enthusiasm for Allan's blog and return to writing.^[3]

In October 2013 she was the subject of a profile piece by the Mail & Guardian newspaper titled "The return of Jani Allan". Allan announced to the newspaper a new media project, an interactive biography project about her life and South Africa.^[3] She also launched the website, http://janiallan.com/ where she publishes a new web column and invites participation in her book project. A recent column titled "A LETTER TO JOOST"^[69] went viral across social media. Allan addressed Joost van der Westhuizen and supported the rugby star's bid to stop the publication of a tell-all book about his marriage.

On 16 October, Allan made a morning radio appearance on the Redi Thlabi show, broadcast on Johannesburg's Radio 702 and Cape Town's Cape Talk. On 27 October, an interview with Allan was published in the Business Times section of her former newspaper, the Sunday Times.^[70]

On 18 November, Allan addressed an open letter to US personality, Melissa Bachman amid a storm of controversy when Bachman posed with a dead lion she had hunted in South Africa. Allan's piece went viral, garnering over 1 million page views.^[71][72]

Personal life

At the University of the Witwatersrand where she was studying the history of art, she met her first husband, the finance magnate and art collector, Gordon Schachat. The couple were together for almost five years, but after two years of marriage the couple divorced in 1984, and Allan attributed her burgeoning career as a factor: "I was obsessed with my column. I was intent on becoming the best journalist in the country."^[73] They remained friends and Schachat supported Allan's testimony in the 1992 libel suit she brought against Channel 4 in London.^[15][74] Allan told a London court that 8 years after their marriage breakup, Schachat was her closest friend and described their union as "the right people at the wrong time."

Allan became a born-again Christian in 1994.^[21][43] She returned to South Africa two years later to be with her dying mother and later had a relationship with Mario Oriani-Ambrosini, an IFP MP and Italian expatriate.^[75] She emigrated to the United States in 2001 and a year later, married Dr Peter Kulish, an American inventor. The couple divorced in 2005.^[9][15][76]

Association with Eugène Terre'Blanche

In December 1987 she was asked at an editorial conference to "go and have tea" with the right-wing militant Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging leader Eugène Terre'Blanche. She later admitted, "I had not heard of him" as she had not been a particularly "political person" and that he was a strange subject for a newspaper she described as "extreme centre".^[8] On 31 January 1988, the Sunday Times published Allan's interview with Terre'Blanche for Allan's Face to Face column. In the interview, Allan wrote of her fascination with Terre'blanche: "Right now I've got to remind myself to breathe ... I'm impaled on the blue flames of his blowtorch eyes."^[77] Despite claiming that she became the "heroine of the newsroom" for her frankness, she later told the Sunday Times journalist Stuart Wavell that she regretted describing Terre'Blanche in these terms, not realising the political veneration that would be read into them. She pointed towards the lack of knowledge she had about the Hitler personality cult "It sounds farfetched, but we are only taught South African history at school." Although Wavell identified that the words were not significant compared to her other material; "a perusal of her interviews shows a fondness for such extravagant language."^[8] Allan later told a journalist that "From the moment that interview was published, my life was over. It has destroyed my career in South Africa."^[23]

Meanwhile, she accompanied the AWB to some of their rallies and reported for her newspaper at the behest of her editor, Tertius Myburgh.^[8] Two weeks after the 31 January 1988 interview was published she attended an AWB rally. The rally was also frequented by the world press. She was followed by television crews. Allan later relayed the significance of the episode: "I was an ordinary journalist attending an event with the world press; how come they had footage of me if I hadn't been set up? The cameras were on me the whole time."^[8]

Again, she interviewed the AWB leader for the Sunday Times in November 1988, with an interview published by the Sunday after the Wit Wolf (Barend Strydom) massacre in Pretoria.^[78] Her words in the January interview were relayed when there was speculation regarding an affair, when they were photographed together at the Paardekraal Monument in Krugersdorp on 27 December 1988. Following the meeting, Terre'Blanche allegedly rammed his BMW through the Paardekraal Monument's gates.^[77] The crash prompted police and media appearances, and Allan and Terre'Blanche were photographed together on the Paardekraal monument steps. On the first Sunday of 1989, the Sunday Times published a front page article by Allan with the headline "The REAL story of me and ET and the SAP". In the article, she denied affair allegations and claimed that she and Terre'Blanche had arranged to meet with a media crew at the monument and that she had been commissioned to do a feature on Paardekraal revisited for a London-based news agency. Terre'Blanche asserted that "My relationship with her is absolutely professional" and related to his co-operation for her book project.^[79][80]

Allan later spoke about the Paardekraal incident in an interview with the London Sunday Times, remarking that it resembled a "set-up". She explained to Stuart Wavell; "Fifteen police cars appeared and I don't know how many policemen. It was like the movies. I said, `Am I on Candid Camera?'".^[8] Later, relations between the pair cooled and an acrimonious battle ensued in the press,^[81] with Allan taking legal action against Terre'Blanche because of repeated nuisance contact. A case of crimen injuria was laid against Terre'Blanche in March 1989 relating to the damaged gates, with Allan subpoenaed as chief witness for the state. Ultimately Allan was not required to testify, and Terre'Blanche was acquitted.^[82]

In the early hours of 14 July 1989, the affair allegations and suspicions that Allan was a spy led Cornelius Lottering, member of breakaway AWB group Orde van die Dood, to place a bomb outside Jani Allan's Sandton apartment.^[83] The bomb exploded on a wall abutting Allan's apartment shattered all the windows in the apartment complex up to the seventh floor but there were no casualties in the blast. Allan's newspaper reported in a front-page spread that the attack was a culmination of a campaign of intimidation against her that had included prowlers outsider her apartment and telephone death threats. Lottering was subsequently convicted of the assassination attempt.^{[77][84][85][86][87][88]}

In an article published by the Sunday Times on 23 July 1989, Allan recalled a significant episode when Terre'Blanche had drunkenly hammered on her flat door and eventually slept on the doorstep and that she had to step over him the next morning.^[89] Despite her objections, her editor, Myburgh who insisted on publishing answering machine messages allegedly by Terre'Blanche, accompanied by a denial by Allan of counter claims that he had made against her. Allan recounted conversations with her editor "After the bomb he said, 'Right, we'll publish the tapes.' I said I didn't think that would be wise, as the security police had told me my life would be in danger. He said, 'We're going to blow them out of the water.'" She had just emerged from a course of traction for her seized back, and was then rushed to hospital with a bleeding ulcer because of the stress.^[8][90][91] Allan fled to Britain permanently for security reasons in the same week that the transcripts were published.^[92]

In retrospect, in an interview published by the London Sunday Times in 1990, Allan questioned whether her association with Terre'Blanche had been orchestrated by her editor, Tertius Myburgh.^[8] Despite having become his "blue-eyed girl" she questioned whether Myburgh had used her as part of a National Party government plot to discredit the far right.^[8] Several South African journalists have alleged that Myburgh colluded with the South African Bureau of State Security in the 1970s and its successor intelligence agencies in the 1980s.^[93][94]

In a lead story with the Cape Times published in 1996 she spoke about Terre'Blanche; "He is a political Tyrannosaurus Rex ... a henpecked husband who has to remove his boots before he is allowed to enter his wife's pristine kitchen; a narcissist who carries a can of Fiesta hairspray in the pocket of his safari suit ... ".^[95]

Her name appeared extensively in the international press following the murder of Terre'Blanche on 3 April 2010.^[96] In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail she revealed "I suppose at some level I always thought he would come to a very violent end. He lived a violent existence and I knew he wasn't going to die peacefully in bed. I think he knew it too." She also told the newspaper that she believed his murder was politically orchestrated.^[15] In 2012, Terre'Blanche's widow, Martie denied allegations of an affair between her late husband and Allan.^[97]

Libel suit against Channel 4

In 1992, Allan sued Channel 4, the British broadcaster, for libel,^[98] claiming that in the documentary The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife by Nick Broomfield she was presented as a "woman of easy virtue".^[99] Amid a montage of photographs from Allan's earlier days as a photographic model and Sunday Times quotes Broomfield claimed that Jani Allan had had an affair with Terre'Blanche. The documentary-maker and his crew were following the AWB and its activities for the documentary that was watched by 2.3 million Channel 4 viewers.^[100]

During the trial, Channel 4 denied the claim that they had suggested Allan had an affair with Terre'Blanche. Prior to the case, Allan had been awarded £40,000 in out-of-court settlements from the Evening Standard and Options magazine over suggestive remarks made about the nature of Allan's association with Terre'Blanche.^[101] Allan was represented by the late Peter Carter-Ruck in the case and Channel 4 was represented by the late QC George Carman.^[102] Carman described the case as rare in that it had "international, social, political and cultural implications."^[103]

The case sparked intense media interest in both Britain and South Africa, with several court transcripts appearing in the press. Allan famously told Carman "Whatever award is given for libel, being cross-examined by you would not make it enough money."^[104] Several character witnesses were flown in from South Africa.^[22]

Terre'Blanche submitted a sworn statement to the London court denying that he had had an affair with Allan, saying "All these attempts to exaggerate the extent of my relationship with Miss Allan will ultimately be seen for what they are - a pack of lies."^[105] Allan's case was dealt a heavy blow by the statements of her former flatmate, Linda Shaw, the Sunday Times astrologer. Shaw testified in court that Allan had told her that she was in love with Terre'Blanche and wanted to marry him. She admitted that she knew about the relationship early on and that Allan had described Terre'Blanche as a "great lay, but a little heavy".^[106] Allan rebuffed these claims in court, describing Terre'Blanche's physical appearance unfavourably: "I've always thought he looked rather like a pig in a safari suit."^[74] Shaw described how she had peeped through a keyhole and witnessed Allan in a compromising position with a large man. Allan's QC, Charles Gray dismissed Shaw's "wildly unlikely" testimony and stressed the physical impossibility of her claim. He continued to express that her field of vision through the keyhole would not be sufficient to support her claim.^[107]

Shaw also testified that four months later, in September 1988, she got drunk with Allan and accompanied her to a 1 am rendezvous with Terre'Blanche. She alleged she watched from a wall as the couple kissed, embraced and fondled for half an hour in the back of Allan's car.^[74] Terre'Blanche denied ever having met Shaw.^[105] Allan alleged that Shaw had sinister motivations for testifying against her, saying "she has told people she was obsessed with me and that was the only way she could exorcise me. She was openly bisexual." She also agreed with the statement that Shaw was a "habitual liar" and continued "I disapproved of the number of men she had traipsing into her bedroom and suggested she should have a turnstile on her bedroom door".^[108] Andrew Broulidakis, a childhood friend of Allan's who also knew Shaw, brought into question the latter's character in a draft statement supplied to the court.^[41][74] Sebastian Faulks remarked in The Guardian: "What is it that makes George Carman worth £10,000 a day when plaintiffs witness Andrew Broulidakis was so easily able to wrong foot him."^[109] A witness also alleged that Shaw had disparagingly referred to Allan as a "frigid bitch" and it would be a "scream" to have her "nailed for gang-banging Nazis".^[110] Shaw also faced allegations that she had deliberately gotten pregnant to ensnare a boyfriend^[111] and that she had said "I Never trust a man until I've slept with him."^[112]

Further testimony was given by AWB financial secretary Kays Smit. Smit testified that Allan had phoned her to come and remove a drunken Terre'Blanche from her flat early one morning because Allan was expecting someone and was anxious to get rid of him. Smit testified to finding Terre'Blanche on Allan's couch "naked except for a khaki jacket around his shoulders and a pair of underpants". Her description of Terre'Blanche's green underpants with holes in them became the source of much ridicule in the press.^[106] Additional testimony against Allan was given by former colleague Marlene Burger, who claimed Terre'Blanche had proposed to Allan in April 1989. According to Burger, Allan was thrilled and asked Burger to be her bridesmaid. Gray countered that the claims were "utterly unfounded and wholly untrue".^[74]

On day 2, Allan's 1984 diary was delivered to Carman's junior counsel and used against Allan in cross examination. The notebook contained details of Allan's sexual fantasies about a married Italian airline pilot named Ricardo and it cast doubt on her professed celibacy. Allan told the court that her relationship with Ricardo only included "a degree of sexual foreplay". The judge said that any finding that Allan had lied about the extent of this relationship did not mean she had an affair with Terre'Blanch, who de described as "a very different man".^[113] The diary's disappearance was investigated by the police, but it was found that the diary had been left in the home of an English couple with whom Allan had resided in 1989.^[41] Allan revealed "I was in a traumatic state and I wrote down my worst fears and probably my worst desires," continuing "It was a way of dealing with my sexual problems. [...] This notebook is deeply embarrassing. I wrote it when I was under psychiatric care."^[114] Later her former husband Gordon Schachat provided evidence supporting claims Allan had made about her disinterest in sex and citing it as a reason for the breakdown of their marriage.^[115] Schachat also rebuffed perceptions in the media about her image: "her sexy public image is totally at odds with her real personality", continuing to describe her as "shy". He insisted she was neither an extreme right-winger or anti-semitic.^[74]

On day 11 of the case, Anthony Travers, a former British representative of the AWB and spectator of the court, was stabbed. A court usher received a call saying Peter Carter-Ruck, Allan's solicitor, had been stabbed. This stemmed from a message by Travers who was lying in an alleyway. He said to a passer-by 'tell Carter-Ruck I've been stabbed'. It quickly spread that Carter-Ruck had been stabbed, followed by speculation that he was the intended victim.^[41][116] During the trial Jani Allan's London flat was burgled. She said that she received a death threat on a telephone call in the court ushers' offices. The hotel room of a Channel 4 producer, Stevie Godson, was also ransacked.^[41]

Allan eventually lost the case on 5 August 1992. The judge found that Channel 4's allegations had not defamed Allan, although he did not rule on whether or not there had been an affair.^[106] The outcome received major media attention in South Africa and the United Kingdom, appearing on the front page of seven major newspaper such as The Times, Daily Telegraph, The Independent and The Guardian.^[117] Reports later emerged that Allan was considering an appeal and that Terre'Blanche was considering suing the broadcaster for libel.^[118][119] Following the verdict, Allan reiterated her stance "I am not, nor have I ever been, involved with Terre'Blanche".^[120]

Soon after, several publications speculated about political forces at play during the case. The Independent published details of what it called "dirty tricks" used during the trial. Allan suggested that pro-government forces in South Africa wanted her to lose the case so that Terre'Blanche would be "irreparably damaged" in the eyes of his "God-fearing Calvinist followers". Another interpretation is that the AWB wanted to steal a manuscript of a book she was writing about the organisation. The AWB countered these claims, although Travers described the book as "dynamite."^[41] The South African business newspaper Financial Mail published a lead story on 6 August detailing the theory that F.W. de Klerk had orchestrated the libel case to discredit Terre'Blanche and the far right movement in South Africa.^[121] In the wake of the trial, Allan started a telephone service, with advertisements promising the journalist's insights into the lives and characters of defense witnesses, Linda Shaw, Marlene Burger and Kays Smit. The South African Sunday Times appealed to the ombudsman to discontinue the £1 a minute service.^[122] In March 1993, Die Burger reported that Allan was negotiating an appeal that was projected to be heard at the high court later that year. This was ultimately not pursued.^[123]

In 1995, during an interview with Cliff Saunders broadcast by the SABC, she said "The facts of the matter are [that] I did not do any of the things of which I was accused by paid witnesses."^[43] She was soon interviewed by Lin Sampson for Playboy and reinforced her disagreement with the defence witnesses. In the favourable article, Sampson described the rage against Allan as "the first public showing of what would become the new South African psychosis". Sunday Times defence witnesses were said to be irate that their shared publisher, Times Media, published the article. The newspaper proceeded to publish an extract of the interview to promote its sister magazine sales.^[124]

In a 2002 BBC film Get Carman: the trials of George Carman QC, Allan's case was dramatised ^[125] together with a number of other high-profile Carmen cases. Allan was portrayed by English actress Sarah Berger in the production starring David Suchet.^[126] The Guardian decried Berger's accent for the role as "crude" and "caricature"-like, unlike that of Allan's, described as "relatively cultured and by no means excessively strong South African accent".^[127]

The libel suit is mentioned amid a montage of photos and camera footage of Jani Allan and reporters outside the London court in 1992, in the 2006 Nick Broomfield sequel His Big White Self, a sequel to The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife, the documentary that spawned the libel suit.

In 2010, Allan reasserted that she believed affair allegations were orchestrated by South African intelligence services. Despite defending affair claims she made, Linda Shaw also agreed with Allan's assertion that intelligence services used the story to discredit Terre Blanche and the far-right movement.^[15]

Spy allegations

In 2000 reports emerged that Allan's London employer and SABC journalist, Cliff Saunders was in a pay dispute with South Africa's intelligence services over services rendered in the past. According to reports, Saunders had also recruited another journalist, revealed to be Allan to spy on the activities of the Inkatha Freedom Party in 1995-1996.^[128][129] Allan responded to these claims in writing an article for the The Sunday Independent where she admitted she had been an "unwitting spy" in London.^{[21][130][131]}

Allan revealed that she believed she was working as a researcher and journalist at Newslink International, a news agency. Instead she was working for Geofocus SA, a front company with a focus to spy. Allan became suspicious over the handling of money and for the concentration of her research on right wing political groups. Allan was able to break into Saunders' computer files when he was temporarily incapacitated and had not changed the code. Allan made copies of the files and provided them as evidence in her Sunday Independent story. The files reveal that sought to infiltrate the IFP through Allan's friendship with Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Allan was also expected to cultivate a relationship with Buthelezi's chief adviser, Mario Oriani-Ambrosini. In another print out, Saunders wrote to the intelligence services; "As far as she is concerned she is simply assisting me with one of my consultancy projects. Once she begins receiving money she is compromised ... and will have to continue. This technique is the well-known one you guys taught me."^[132] Allan's revelations made headlines around South Africa as well as overseas in Britain's Daily Mail where Nigel Dempster focused on Allan's involvement.^[133]

Bibliography

• Face Value (Longstreet, 1983) ISBN 0-620-07013-7

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jani Allan

• Jani Allan letter on Mbeki
• Jani Allan @ WND

Persondata
Name	Allan, Jani
Alternative names
Short description	South African columnist and broadcaster
Date of birth	11 September 1953
Place of birth	United Kingdom
Date of death
Place of death