The sign language interpreter for Mandela`s memorial service on Tuesday has been identified as 34 year old Thamsanqa Jantjie.
Jantjie claims to have had a schizophrenic episode during the service, he takes medication for his condition and is not sure what triggered the attack during the service.
Some deaf people who watched the proceedings of the memorial have said that Jantjie was talking about galloping horses which had nothing to do with the leaders speeches.
Zimbabwean Journalist Tsvangirai Mukwazhi with Thamsanqa Jantjie
Jantjie said he started hearing voices in his head and hallucinating, and told Johannesburg’s Star newspaper that this may have resulted in his gestures that made no sense to deaf people.
“There was nothing I could do. I was alone in a very dangerous situation,” he said. “I tried to control myself and not show the world what was going on. I am very sorry. It’s the situation I found myself in.”
The South African government on Thursday admitted a “there might be a mistake, where other people might not have understood the interpreter,” acknowledging that Jantjie was “not a professional sign language interpreter.”
“But I don’t think he was picked up from the street,” said Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, deputy minister for women, children and persons with disabilities, stating that he may have had problems with English or been tired.
“He’s a complete fraud,” Cara Loening, director of sign language education and development in Cape Town said on Wednesday. “He wasn’t even doing anything. There was not one sign there. Nothing. He was literally flapping his arms around.”
Jantjie said he was happy with his performance at the memorial for Nelson Mandela and has no regrets as everything happened beyond his control.
“Absolutely, absolutely. I think that I’ve been a champion of sign language,” he said.
Jantjie works for a company called SA Interpreters which had been hired by the ANC for the ceremony at Johannesburg’s 95,000-seat Soccer City stadium.
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