BUST JANI
Crowdfunders rescue jobless Allan from poverty
In the 1980s she led a charmed life, occupying a villa above a Clifton beach, driving a Ferrari and being voted the most admired person in South Africa.
But the glamorous existence of Jani Allan, the former model and media darling, came crashing down amid assassination attempts and claims she was having an affair with farright Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging leader Eugene Terre’Blanche.
Allan left South Africa and her torrid past — which included a failed libel action notorious for testimony about holey green underpants — in 2001 to start a new life in smalltown Lambertville, in New Jersey, US. But now she has hit a new low. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Allan pay her bills.
In her “Jobless in New Jersey” blog post on Janiallan.com two weeks ago, Allan wrote: “Someone once said that they could name an amusement park ride after my life. Perhaps that was true in the past. In the past there were the ‘wheeee’ moments when I would fling my hands in the air and shriek with joy. These days there is a lot more horror and less hoorah. What Old Testament aspect of God’s nature did I annoy to find myself job-hunting in America?”
Since the creation of the funding page last week, the target of $5 000 (about R67 000) has almost been reached.
Allan, a former concert pianist, admits she is not good at job-hunting. She has been a teacher and a journalist, and was the mostread columnist at the Sunday Times.
In her blog, Allan wrote: “After a brief and violent marriage [in the US], I had to find something that didn’t require a Green Card. I spent six months answering the telephone and taking reservations. I was paid $14 an hour. The job grew into me as Hostess, me as Server and finally, when I was axed 7 weeks ago, I was (in theory, it seems) me as one of three managers. I had been there for 13 years. I was the Den Mother.
“The reason I was fired was that I was too old. So it has come to pass that every morning at eight a.m. I commence looking for work on my laptop. I am currently subscribed to 48 job-seeking sites.
“Most of the sites require a monthly recurring fee for joining. One extremely obnoxious site shrieks that you can make $500 an hour!!! Just pay, not $200, not $100, not $75, but for TODAY ONLY a mere ‘$45 will unlock the secret to this wealth that you can generate from the comfort of your Lazy Boy Recliner !!!! ”
By week three, “panic has established a beachhead in my body. My ulcer is bleeding, my hands are shaking. I am wearing a helmet of fear. I have no money for the rent, never mind utilities, medical aid or food. It is possible that I have never felt such isolation and fear. But there is always some fresh hell.”
UK-born Allan, who was named Juliette by her adopted mom, married wealthy art collector Gordon Schachat in 1982 at the
My ulcer is bleeding, my hands are shaking. I am wearing a helmet of fear . . .
height of her media career, a marriage that lasted only two years.
It was around this time that she was sent to interview Terre’Blanche, and she confessed that she was “impaled on the blue flames of his blowtorch eyes” — which led to her infamous liaison with the hulking politician notorious for falling off his horse.
Allan sued Britain’s Channel 4 for a TV documentary that honed in on the sex scandal. The court battle led to a tit-for-tat media catfight between Allan and her former housemate, astrologer Linda Shaw. Shaw’s claim to have seen, through a keyhole, Allan and Terre’Blanche having sex sank the columnist’s case.
On Facebook, Allan wrote this week: “To those who have been so generous — deep, deep thanks. A wordsmith would be out of words to describe my gratitude.”
Eris Silke, a friend, wrote on Facebook: “I am sure she will find her way through the crisis . . . Jani is a brilliant intellect and a very strong woman — a true survivor!”