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Jani Allan Quotes

Jani Allan is a South African journalist, columnist, writer and broadcaster. She is one of the country's best-known and most widely-read columnists.

In 1980 Allan became a columnist for the centrist newspaper, the Sunday Times, the country’s biggest-circulating weekly newspaper. She was the newspaper's best-read columnist over the next decade, publishing columns such as Just Jani, Jani Allan's Week and Face to Face. 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. In 2015, Marianne Thamm of the Daily Maverick described Allan as having been "the most influential writer and columnist in the country".

She later became the subject of press interest over the nature of her relationship with an interview subject, the late Eugène Terre'Blanche. Allan strongly denied the affair allegations and took an injunction out against Terre'Blanche. Allan was forced to leave South Africa when her apartment was bombed by the far-right in 1989. Allan filed an unsuccessful and highly publicized libel suit in London against the broadcaster Channel 4 in 1992 over the affair allegations.

She returned to South Africa in 1996, publishing a sponsored web column and presenting a radio show on Cape Talk. After an extended break she returned to the South African media frame in 2013, reinventing herself as a restaurant diarist and animal rights advocate. Allan continues to write freelance opinion pieces for South African publications. In 2014, she made headlines around the world after publishing an open letter to accused murderer Oscar Pistorius. Jacana Media published Allan's memoirs, Jani Confidential on 16 March 2015. Allan has lived in the United States since 2001, where she is a Permanent Resident.

✵ 11. September 1952
Jani Allan photo
Jani Allan: 23   quotes 3   likes

Famous Jani Allan Quotes

“to miik the citizens to the extent that they start mooing, is contrary to improving living standards.”

Jani Allan

In an article published in the Sunday Times
Sunday Times

“The happy-go-lucky barefoot kid who loved rugby, ice-cream-and-hot-chocolate sauce, staying at home for a braai and the flieks grew up into an international rubgy player, idol of millions and South African cult figure…”

Jani Allan

Description of Naas Botha from her interview with Botha published in the Just Jani column of the Sunday Times, republished in Face Value by Jani Allan.
Sunday Times

“Dressing with style is akin to issuing a manifesto; dressing fashionably is like signing a petition.”

Jani Allan

http://www.theabsolute.net/minefield/pwords.html
Other

“The original of the yellow rose is clad (you've guessed it) in canary yellow. The lemon-meringue confection has been poured into yellow slacks and yellow shirt, an immaculate yellow-blonde barbie-doll with 'EFG- Follies-Girl' written all over her.”

Jani Allan

Description of Joan Brickhill from her interview with Brickhill published in the Just Jani column of the Sunday Times, republished in Face Value by Jani Allan.
Sunday Times

“The voice (sometimes an ominous rumble that sounds as though he's been gargling with pebbles, sometimes the bliss of Bailey's Irish Cream swirling lazily about a fine crystal goblet) crescendos almost imperceptibly.”

Jani Allan

Description of Wynand Claassen from her interview with Claassem published in the Just Jani column of the Sunday Times, republished in Face Value by Jani Allan.
Sunday Times

“As remote as the rings of Saturn… A man with his stubby million-rand finger perennially prodding the public's pulse, his eyes constantly roving the horizons of the future, Kerzner has the power of a Prometheus unbound.”

Jani Allan

Description of Sol Kerzner from interview published in the Just Jani column of the Sunday Times, republished in Face Value by Jani Allan.
Sunday Times

Jani Allan Quotes

“Whatever award is given for libel, being cross-examined by you would not make it enough money.”

Jani Allan

Speaking in 1992 in the London High Court to George Carman, defence lawyer representing Channel 4 during the libel case she filed against the broadcaster. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D07EFDE153AF93BA35752C0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
Other

Money

“A black-belt bullshitter”

Jani Allan

Description of Pik Botha in Sunday Times column Face to Face.
Sunday Times

“the little roly-poly Russian-born rebel of the canvas.”

Jani Allan

Description of Vladimir Tretchikoff from her interview with Tretchikoff published in the Just Jani column of the Sunday Times, republished in Face Value by Jani Allan.
Sunday Times

“I disapproved of the number of men she had traipsing into her bedroom and suggested she should have a turnstile on her bedroom door.”

Jani Allan

Describing Linda Shaw, her former flatmate and defence witness in 1992 in the London High Court to George Carman, defence lawyer representing Channel 4 during the libel case she filed against the broadcaster. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/courtroom-14-the-owl-has-landed-1535309.html
Other

Men

“You'd have to be dead not to be impressed by his sincerity. But then didn't Oscar Wilde say say "The worst vice of the fanatic is his sincerity."”

Jani Allan

Description of Eugene Terre'Blanche in the Face to Face column published on 31 January 1989.
Sunday Times

Sincerity , Dead

“Most of the time our discussions are political, because it's hard not to be political in this country (not like in Britain, where you can ignore the rather sedate way everything's going downhill).”

Jani Allan

Speaking in 1997 during an interview with The Independent about her South-Africa related political discussions with friend Mangosuthu Buthelezi http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19970406/ai_n14117510
Other

Way , Time , Country

“I'm impaled on the blue flames of his blowtorch eyes, you see.”

Jani Allan

Description of Eugene Terre'Blanche in the Face to Face column published on 31 January 1989.
Sunday Times

“That night I made copies of all the documents with shaking hands and gave them to a friend with contacts in the British secret services. I had a bitter taste in my mouth.”

Jani Allan

Writing in her column about how she reacted after she realised she had been recruited as an 'unwitting' spy by Cliff Saunders in London in the early 1990s. http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=ct20000227222234900S1258
Other

Secret , Night

“It is her total professionalism and perennial striving for perfection that elevated Moira from the merely blonde to the maxi-talented.”

Jani Allan

Description of Moira Lister from her interview with Lister published in the Just Jani column of the Sunday Times, republished in Face Value by Jani Allan.
Sunday Times

Perfection

“A pervasive moral turpitude underlies South African society.”

Jani Allan

Speaking after her 1992 London court case [citation needed]
Other

“And I think that my whole life, looking back at it, I was so rooted in worldly things, in worldly values, fame, fashion and fortune and all the things that are just transient.”

Jani Allan

Speaking in 1995 in an SABC interview about a change of philosophy following her libel case against Channel 4. http://70.84.171.10/~etools/newsbrief/1995/news0103
Other

Life , Fashion , Thinking

“But despite the fact that everyone thinks that I'm an IFP member, I do not have any political affiliations. I support Buthelezi the man because he makes me believe that heroes still exist.”

Jani Allan

Speaking in 1997 during an interview with The Independent about her political affiliations in South Africa http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19970406/ai_n14117510
Other

Support , Thinking

“The facts of the matter are (that) I did not do any of the things of which I was accused by paid witnesses. But having said that, I'm not sitting here today pleading for the world to believe me because I've come to God. He knows what's in my heart; he knows the truth of the matter. And the witnesses who lied do as well.”

Jani Allan

Speaking in 1995 in an SABC interview about witnesses in her libel case against Channel 4. http://70.84.171.10/~etools/newsbrief/1995/news0103
Other

God , Truth , World , Heart

“a small bewigged ferret”

Jani Allan

Description of Carman in 1992 article she published in The Spectator. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/jani-allan-bites-back-at-ferret-1541792.html
Other

“His voice, like a malted milkshake marinated for more than seventy years, has a slightly monotonous lilt - rather like a Hindu chanting Bagavad Gita.”

Jani Allan

Description of Walter Battiss from her interview with Battiss published in the Just Jani column of the Sunday Times, republished in Face Value by Jani Allan.
Sunday Times

“She is not destructive - but she does have a particular facility for puncturing pomposity.”

Jani Allan

Joe Sutton referring to Allan following their interview. Quoted in Face Value by Jani Allan.

“The only girl who ever knocked me out.”

Jani Allan

Mike Weaver referring to Allan following their interview. Quoted in Face Value by Jani Allan.

Girl

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