Reverend Bantubahle Xozwa and his wife Cikizwa, a personal assistant to the ANC’s chief spokesman the two directors of the company that employed a bogus sign language interpreter for Nelson Mandela’s memorial service have quit their jobs in South Africa’s ruling African National Congress, a party spokesman said Tuesday.
The two Directors resigned following the exposure of interpreter Thamsanqa Jantjie as an imposter.
“They resigned in December,” said ANC spokesman Keith Khoza.
He said he could not remember the date the couple left “but it was after the incident”.
Reasons for their departure were not given.
The couple were directors at SA Interpreters, the company that employed Jantjie.
Jantjie’s performance sparked outrage among sign language experts who accused him of gesticulating gibberish at the December 10 memorial.
Jantjie translated the eulogies — including those by US President Barack Obama, UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Mandela’s grandchildren.
His signing amounted to little more than “flapping his arms around”, one expert said. He was “just making funny gestures”, said another.
Jantjie who claimed to be a qualified signer for the deaf said his performance on the day was caused by a sudden episode of schizophrenia.
Its now six weeks since the South African government launched a probe into the incident but no update on the matter has been issued
The ANC admitted Jantjie previously worked for it at a party conference, but said it was unaware of any complaints regarding the quality of his services.
Following the incident, the South African government issued an formally apology for any offence caused, and admitted a “mistake” had been made.
It claimed SA Interpreters had “vanished into thin air”.
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