Consumer rights champion Isabel Jones has died, one of her agents confirmed on Tuesday.
Jones, who underwent open heart surgery in December, was not feeling well on Friday and was admitted to hospital, said Stuart Lee, chief executive of Famous Faces Management, the agent for aspects of Jones’s commercial career.
Jones died on Tuesday morning, said Lee, who worked with her for about 10 years.
“She was absolutely fearless,” he said in a tribute to the woman South Africans best came to know for her work fighting for consumer rights in the television programme Fair Deal.
“She would take nonsense from nobody. She would take untruths from nobody,” he added.
This was even to her own personal detriment sometimes, Lee said, explaining that Jones had on occasion risked her life in pursuit of a story.
Jones was born in England, but came to South Africa 20 years ago when she started her career as a food journalist, according to her biography on the Famous Faces website.
In 1998 she joined Talk Radio 702, presenting the consumer, food, wine, books and motoring programme Isabel Jones Live.
She was well respected, even by those she criticised, said Lee.
She also made the “best Christmas pudding around”, he said.
Jones was married to Ryal Barry Jones and they had a son and a daughter.
Her credibility took a knock when she started endorsing frying pans and then a weight-loss product.
“Perhaps the whole journalism profession crossed the line when Isabel Jones started endorsing products,” suggested Kuzwayo Advertising head Muzi Kuzwayo in the Rhodes Journalism Review.
“She changed from being a ‘guardian of the consuming society’ to a cheerleader of products. She sold her credibility and tossed her objectivity for superficial lines written by copywriters. Will she ever take a case against her own clients?” he asked.
“How will she ever deal with competitors of the products she endorses?”
Added Rhodes University lecturer Douglas Mitchell, in the Mail & Guardian Online: “How could anyone who’s seen her Bauer Pro Cookware infomercial take her seriously as a journalist? I know I can’t.
“… As a consumer journalist, she’s damaged goods,” he charged.
However, as Jones told M-Net actuality programme Carte Blanche: “I had to think about it very, very deeply.
“As a consumer journalist people would obviously not prefer me to do infomercials, but I really don’t want to be destitute in my old age with a little placard around my neck at a traffic light.”
In 2002, though, the Direct Marketing Association gave her a special award acknowledging that while participating in infomercials, she had “retained her independence as a consumer champion”.
Jones went on to become a member of the Gauteng Consumer Affairs Court — last sitting with the court on February 27. — Sapa