Monday, November 26, 2007


Radio Talk-show host on Cape Talk
Mweb columnist
Regular commentator on the Jeff Rense show
Jani Allan (born 11 September 1953) is a South African journalist and top radio commentator. Allan was formerly South Africa's leading columnist during her time at The Sunday Times (South Africa) newspaper. Her personal life has also frequently made the headlines, particularly in 1988 with her association with one of her Sunday Time's interviewees, right-wing AWB leader, Eugène Terre'Blanche. Speculation was intensified, regarding their association in 1992 during Allan's high-profile libel case against British broadcaster, Channel 4. Allan later returned to the mainstream of the South African media with a column and associated forum on Mweb and later as a radio show host on Cape Talk radio. Although Allan currently resides in the USA, and has been operating as a freelance journalist, as well as making several radio show appearance, as a radio show commentator.

Biography
In 1988, a Sunday Times interview for Allan's 'Face to face' column was published between Allan and Eugene Terreblanche , the right-wing AWB leader, Eugène Terre'Blanche.
Both were reported to have had several meetings following the interview as Allan was writing a book on right-wing politics in South Africa, and Terre'Blanche was a subject. Allan also accompanied the AWB to some of their rallies and reported for the Sunday Times.
Speculation regarding their relationship was intensified following the Paardekraal incident, whereby Allan and Terre'Blanche had organised to meet up at the Voortrekker Monument restaurant to discuss Terre'Blanche's inclusion in Allan's book. Following the meeting, Terre'Blanche allegedly crashed into the Voortrekker Monument's gates. The crash prompted police and media appearances and Allan and Terre'Blanche were seen together on the Paardekraal monument steps. Although there was little evidence to suggest an affair, the rumour mills did not hesitate in sensationalising the incident.
Allan herself sought to set the record straight in the same week, with her own version of events in a front-page leading story in The Sunday Times, with the headline ' The REAL story of me and ET and the SAP'. Her story cleared Terre'Blanche's as did his own version of events. Yet a court case of criminal damage (regarding the damage to the Vootrekker monument's gates) as well as crimen injura (regarding Terre'Blanche's expressed disrespectful language towards a police officer). In light of these charges, it was also alleged that the government (then in negotiations with the ANC and anticipating a multi-racial election) had been hoping to capitalize on events, to weaken the AWB and the right-wing challenge which they posed. Despite this, Terre'Blanche was found not-guilty on both charges. The AWB certainly was negatively affected by the court case and affair allegations.
Allan later released recorded telephone-tapes between her and Terre'Blanche to The Sunday Times. Yet in light of the bomb incident (a bomb had recently exploded in Jani's apartment and the planters were unknown, with suspects ranging from the AWB and intelligence sources among others) Allan retreated to London before the tapes were published, for her own safety. Although it would be several years until Allan would permanently return to South Africa.

Association with Eugene Terre'Blanche
In 1992, Allan sued Channel 4, the British broadcaster, for libel, claiming that in their documentary The Leader, His Driver and the Driver's Wife by Nick Broomfield, she was presented as a "woman of easy virtue". The documentary-maker, Broomfield, who was following the AWB and its activities, claimed that Jani Allan had an affair with Eugene Terre'Blanche, accompanying this were photos of Allan, when she worked as a photographic model.
Channel 4 was represented was by the late QC George Carman, and Allan herself admitted to Carman

Libel case against Channel 4
In 1994, during an interview with SABC, Jani Allan revealed that she had become a born again Christian. Despite not being successful in her high-profile libel case against Channel 4, she revealed that the case had served a purpose in that she found God. Having previously held faith in the British justice system and the belief that justic would prevail, if one told the truth, Allan was disillusioned with the outcome of the case and revelaed one could not put too much store in man's judgement. Allan revealed that the bible had brought about a 'dramatic change' in herself and that she had a 'new heart' and that her otlooks had changed. She also highlighted previous things which were important to her such as fame, fashion and fortune were now trasient.

Christianism
In 1997, London's The Independent ran an article

Friendship with Mangosuthu Buthelezi
Prior to becoming a Journalist, Allan had worked as a teacher as well as photographic model. As she began to get involved in the media world, she worked at SAAN (South African Associated Newspapers).

Career

Sunday Times
Allan got her break with the Sunday Times (where she would work for over a decade) when she was appointed gossip columnist with her Just Jani column. She frequently interviewed South Africa's celebrity elite and personalities in the entertainment world. She also interviewed foreign celebrities such as Robert Moore.

Just Jani
With her growing popularity, Allan was appointed the leading columnist and in her new column, Face to Face she would regularly interview political figures. Her guests ranged from Winnie Mandela to far-right political leaders such as Eugene Terre'Blanche.

Jani Allan Face to Face
Following her unsuccessful court case in London, Allan began to work with former SABC journalist, Cliff Saunders, as a domestic worker (yet in a role that was more similar to that of a PA). Yet Allan was unknowingly and allegedly working as a spy for her boss. Allan, a personal friend of Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, was unknowingly employed to gather information on the IFP and its actvities as well as it's members. Allegedly Saunders was a previous apartheid spy and was now working for the new ANC regime and the IFP's activities were supposedly of much interest to the ANC.

Unwitting spy
Allan returned to South Africa in 1996, to be with her adoptive-mother who's health was deteriorating. Prior to returning, Allan also became a born-again Christian in 1994.Upon her return she was also interviewed by local Style magazine and appeared on the front cover .
She went on to make several appaearances in popular magazines and published articles in a wide range of publications. Of which included her regular lifestyle column for M-Net website's lifestyle section.

Return to South Africa
Jani Allan was also involved as a columnist for MWeb. As well as writing for the website, she had her own discussion forum. Although controversially Mweb and Jani Allan parted company and her forum site was removed following an article in which Allan questioned today's non-colonial Africa.

Mweb
In 1997 she was announced as a host on Cape Talk Radio, a Cape Town-based popular radio show and launched her show Jani's world which aired on Friday evening's between 9pm to midnight.The show became the station's most popular show, even towards it's cancellation.
Yet her show, she and her guest sparked controversy in September 1999, when she interviewed American right-winger Keith Johnson of the Militia of Montana. Johnson made remarks about abbinical teachings, Israel, Hitler and the Holocaust. As well as outlining global conspiracy theory, he denounced homosexuality, race mixing and former South African President, Nelson Mandela. Allan sparked controversy, as she did not correct Johnson regarding these issues. Although Allan herself did not express that she agreed with the controversial views expressed.The interview[2] gained a considerable negative reaction from viewers and an apology was broadcast two days later.
In a show broadcast with Jan Lamprecht on capetalk, both discussed 'Mugabe's reign of terror and the Zimbabwe land grabs'. Shortly after the show, she was held up at gunpoint with a magnum 44 in an incident which may have been related to the broadcast.
Allan hosted the 3 hour evening show for three years,despite the success of the show, which had high audience figures and was popular across racial boundaries, her contract was terminated in October 2000. It was claimed that 'there is no place for the likes of Jani Allan in the New South Africa." Allan commented that the owners of the station found her style too politically incorrect and controversial.[3]

Cape Talk Radio
In 2001 Allan relocated to the USA, she had previously displayed discontent with the ruling South African government and had recently been held up in a Cape Town hostage drama. Allan also outlined her green card woes and her destructive and short-lived recent marriage on her blog and Jeff Rense's website [4].

Emigration to the USA
Six months after arriving in America in 2001, Allan married an American man. Yet the marriage soon collapsed with Allan citing the increasingly abusive nature of the marriage and physical as well as mental isolation. Soon after her hospitalisation for both physical and psychological effects of the relationship, she fled the marital home.

Second marriage
In her own local state of Pennsylvania, Allan was also providing horoscopes [5] from 2003 in local magazine 'NewHopePennsylvania' , including both human as well as pet horoscopes, Allan herself is a dog lover. Previously, Allan shared a Sandton flat with former friend and colleague, Linda Shaw, The Sunday Time's astrologer, and who also testified in the 1992 libel case.

Astrologer

US Radio appearances
On 17th June 2004, Jani Allan appeared as the guest on the Jeff Rense show. During the show, which had a listenership of 17m, Allan highlighted the plights of many white Afrikaner families and she encouraged Americans to sponsor white Afrikaner refugees. During the interview, Allan also focussed on her own experiences as a victim of crime as well as on the high rate of white farm murders in South Africa.
Jani Allan later became the regular Friday-night weekly guest-commentator. The popularity of her interview with Rense, also resulted in a repeat of the interview.

Jeff Rense Show
In January 2005, Allan appeared on the 'Flipside with Robby Noel', broadcast on Republic radio. Throughout the interview, Allan questioned the gun laws in place in South Africa as well as other South African-related matters, such as media freedom, crime and cruelty to animals.
Ironically just as Allan had been invited as a weekly Friday night guest commentator on the Jeff Rense Show, she was also invited to hold the same position on Robby Noel's show, 'The Flipside with Robby Noel'.

The Flipside with Robby Noel
Jani Allan has also appeared on the Larry Pratt show, discussing gun laws in place in South Africa. She was also a guest on the information corner radio, [6].

Other radio appearance
Jani Allan has also been involved in writing for conservative news website, worldnetdaily. Her articles for the website have covered issues such as Zimbawe and comparisons with animal cruelty in the country as well as traditional African medical practices.

Worldnetdaily
In 2002, Allan was played by an actress in the BBC production, Get Carman: The Trials of George Carman QC. Carman had previously presented Channel 4, during Allan's earlier libel case, and the television production was based upon the libel case among other high-profile court cases that Carman was involved with.
In 2004, Allan was played by Joan Collins in a comedy spoof for SABC.

Screen depictions

Views
In the interview[7] with Jeff Rense on United States Radio. Allan accused Thabo Mbeki's ANC-led government of targeting white South Africans, particularly Afrikaners, with a genocide campaign. The allegations were sparked by the high proportion of white South African farm attacks taking place in rural South Africa, and were reinforced by the forced and violent removals of white farmers in neighbouring Zimbabwe. Allan also asked for American families to start sponsoring Afrikaner families as political refugees.Allan claimed Mbeki 'has a total obsession with race, that he hates the Afrikaner people and that he is obsessed with what he terms 'colonial oppression'. Apart for alleged genocide, another reason which reinforced Allan's decision to depart South Africa was following an incident where she was held up at gunpoint in Cape Town. Allan relocated to Pennsylvania, USA. Allan is regarded as an outspoken critic of the ANC government as well as an ambassador for the Afrikaner cause.

White genocide
In July 2004, in an article [8] Allan questioned the price of free speech, following Jan Lamprecht's decision to take down his website, wwww.AfricanCrisis.org following an intimidation campaign by the ANC. The site (now reinstated) chronicles the high rate of white farm murders and brutality within South Africa. Lamprecht faced problems when he gave Jani a voice on his site and associated forum. The forum and site was inundated with hate-mail and spam (from users allegedly sympathetic the ANC regime) particularly following Allan's appearance on the Jeff Rense show, which attracted millions of domestic listeners as well as international interest. The ANC allegedly employed a Sunday Times journalist and former colleague to publish a report discrediting Allan's expressed opinion in the show.The web site as well as Jani's forum often outlined the barbaric crime situation, the ANC's ineffectiveness as well as their Marxist origins. A friend of Lamprecht's from the TAU (Transvaal Agricultural Union)even wrote to him stating that "By giving Jani a platform you have angered the movers and shakers... WATCH YOUR BACK!". Allegedly, ANC propagandists were assigned to the site to cause trouble.
In related situations regarding apparent oppression of freedom of speech, Jani Allan's apartment was bombed in 1990. Although contrasting theories persist, regarding the observation that it was an AWB bomb or whether South African intelligence or the ANC were involved. At the time, Allan was controversial as being clearly politically-right and often at odds with the NP's negotiations with the ANC at the time. And as the leading columnist of The Sunday Times, which attracted a huge readership, she had an influential role.
Jani Allan's M-Net forum and column immediately lost it's M-WEB sponsorship and was taken down overnight following an article she wrote on the site, which questioned post-colonial Africa.
In 2000, Allan was also held hostage, following an interview discussing the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. (See CapeTalk section.)

Zimbabwe and animal cruelty
In 2004, Allan also published a damning report on communist findings within the ruling ANC government [10]. Allan made many observations, particularly the military training of many ANC members in Soviet Russia.

ANC communism
In 2005, Allan expressed her own feelings [11]regarding the case of the late Terri Schiavo, whose parents fought extensive legal challenges to keep their daughter alive. Following her collapse in 1990, she had been leading a life of institutilzation for 15 years and was declared as being in a persistent vegetative state and was dependant on a feeding tube. The courts eventually ruled that the feeding tube be removed, and Schiavo be left to die. Allan as well as others were outraged and she branded the actions as a 'public execution'.

Terri Schiavo
Allan has also expressed her disapproval [12] of the gun laws in place in South Africa, which has the highest rate of firearms-related murders in the world. The South African gun laws make it more difficult for home-owners to obtain guns and their accompanying licenses. With suburban areas which are characterised by the high level of security, for many South Africans, they are regarded as a form of household protection rather than intimidation. Allan also speculated that the gun laws placed white South Africans, in particular, in a vulnerable position and left the community susceptible to an alleged planned genocide known as operation Uhuru as well as other names.

Gun control
It was widely speculated that in an internet letter by President Mbeki, he was referring to Jani Allan when he wrote that "Having convinced her listeners that she fled from her white suburb in Cape Town, because the black savages were at her door, some editor in our country will then seize on her victory triumphantly to proclaim that 'overseas the perception remains that SA is one of the world's crime capitals'. President Mbeki blamed the unnamed woman's reasoning on "The psychological residue of apartheid has produced a psychosis among some of us such that, to this day, they do not believe that our non-racial democracy will survive and succeed.''
The reaction from the ANC to the interview with Rense according to Allan's msn groups page was : "We knew Jani Allan was a crazy attention seeker, but to tell such blatant lies about genocide being committed against white South Africans to seven million gullible Americans is beyond the pale. She has slandered our President and told lies that surely constitute treason."

Present
She has a degree in English Literature.
She is a trained classical pianist.
She is mentioned in the Jeremy Maggs' book/memoir 'Daze of my life'
She is mentioned in the 2003 Pat Hopkins book 'Cringe the beloved country'.
She used to drive a red Ferrari whilst working for The Sunday Times.

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