Mandela event interpreter was 'sick' but still a 'champion of sign language' Mandela deaf interpreter a 'fake' A 'fake' sign language interpreter took to the stage during the memorial for Nelson Mandela, angering the deaf community. PT1M21S http://www.smh.com.au/action/externalEmbeddedPlayer?id=d-2z73x 620 349 December 12, 2013 - 11:46AM Qunu, South Africa: He stood with a deadpan expression just inches from President Obama and other world leaders speaking at Nelson Mandela's memorial, dressed in a dark suit, with a blue security lanyard bearing the words "state funeral" draped around his neck, flapping his arms and gesticulating in what was supposed to be sign language for the deaf. But on Thursday, the bizarre story of the supposed interpreter, identified as Thamsanqa Jantjie, who is accused by sign-language experts of being a fraud, took a yet stranger turn when in a series of interviews he said he suffered from schizophrenia, had visions of angels while he was supposed to be interpreting for global dignitaries and begged forgiveness. At the same time, a government minister acknowledged on Thursday that Mr. Jantjie, whose first language was Xhosa, one of the most widespread among South Africa's 11 official languages, was "not a professional sign language interpreter" and "the English was a bit too much for him." Thamasanqa Jantjie, right, has been branded a fake after his signing was described as nothing more than "flapping his arms around." He had been hired at less than half the top rate for the job and the company that supplied him had "vanished into thin air," said Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, the Deputy Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities. The sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela's funeral has said a schizophrenic episode was to blame for him gesticulating nonsense during the entire service. Thamasanqa Jantjie was branded as a scurrilous fake after members of South Africa's deaf community said his signing at Tuesday's memorial ceremony had amounted to nothing more than "flapping his arms around." A 'schizophrenic episode': the man, identified as Thamsanqa Jantji, pretending to be a sign language interpreter during a speech given by India's President Pranab Mukherjee. In an interview Thursday with the Johannesburg newspaper The Star, Mr. Jantjie put his behaviour down to a sudden attack of schizophrenia, for which he takes medication. He told the newspaper that he lost concentration, started hearing voices and hallucinating. 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," he added. Mr. Jantjie later told a Johannesburg talk radio station he has been "a champion of sign language." "I've interpreted at many conferences, including the presidential conference, and there was no one at all who said I interpreted wrong," he said. If what I had been interpreting was wrong all these years, why should it become an issue now? On Wednesday sign language experts expressed outrage that an impostor who was clearly illiterate in the linguistic skills of signing could have pulled off such a stunt. He was a constant presence on the stage of the national memorial on Tuesday, watched not only by the audience in the vast soccer stadium in Soweto but by hundreds of millions on television. "This "fake interpreter" has made a mockery of South African sign language and has disgraced the South African sign language-interpreting profession," said Bruno Druchen, the national director of DeafSA, a Johannesburg advocacy organisation for the deaf. In a statement posted on the organisation's Facebook page, Mr. Druchen said, "The deaf community is in outrage." Mr. Jantjie acknowledged his condition, saying: "What happened that day, I see angels come to the stadium." I start realising that the problem is here. And the problem, I don't know the attack of this problem, how will it come. Sometimes I get violent on that place. Sometimes I will see things chasing me. "I was in a very difficult position," Mr. Jantjie went on. And remember those people, the president and everyone, they were armed, there was armed police around me. If I start panicking I'll start being a problem. I have to deal with this in a manner so that I mustn't embarrass my country. I would like to tell everybody that if I have offended them, please forgive me. I was doing what I believe makes a difference in the country," he said. In another conversation with The Star newspaper, Mr. Jantjie, 34, said he had started hearing voices and hallucinating while on stage in the FNB stadium in Soweto. I was alone in a very dangerous situation. It's the situation I found myself in," he said. And, in yet another interview with Talk Radio 702 in Johannesburg, he defended his performance during the memorial. Absolutely, absolutely. I think that I've been a champion of sign language," he said. He described himself as "a patient receiving treatment in schizophrenia." Two days after the episode, the South African authorities gave their first account of what happened when Deputy Minister for Women, Children and Persons with Disability Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu told reporters on Thursday that government officials had been unable to locate the company that hired Mr. Jantjie and an investigation was underway into his security clearance. "I don't think he was just picked up from the street," she said. He comes from a school for the deaf. "He could speak sign language with his peers but he is not a professional sign language interpreter," she went on. He could not translate from English to sign language. She added: "He is not a professional sign language interpreter. That we want to put on the table. "The English was a bit too much for him," she said. Did a mistake happen? He became overwhelmed. He did not use the normal signs," the minister said. The national embarrassment over the fraudulent interpreter was only one of a number of things that seemed to go wrong in the government's organisation and management of the memorial event, adding to the perception of sloppiness and haste in preparations following Mr. Mandela's death last week. Many South Africans who had wanted to attend complained that public transportation had failed, with buses that never arrived. The aftermath of Mr. Mandela's death was also befouled by news reports on Wednesday that burglars had broken into the Cape Town home of another revered figure in South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle, the Nobel laureate Desmond M. Tutu. The burglary took place while he was attending the memorial service, according to the newspaper Cape Times. Mr. Druchen's statement punched many holes in the sign-language interpreter's credibility. He did not, for instance, use the established signs for Mr. Mandela or President Jacob Zuma. His hand shapes were meaningless. He failed to use facial expressions, head movement, shoulder-raising or other body language considered integral elements of signing. "It is a total mockery of the language," the statement said. In Pretoria, Ms. Bogopane-Zulu said the owners of the company that supplied Mr. Jantjie had "vanished." We've managed to get hold of them and then we spoke to them wanting some answers and they vanished into thin air because it's a clear indication that over the years they have managed to get away with this. They have been providing substandard sign language interpreting to many of their clients and nobody has picked up," she said. She said the authorities were checking Mr. Jantjie's "vetting" to obtain security clearance. "We are requesting to check his vetting," she said. But normally, when you do provide a service at a particular level you will be vetted, and as you see he had his accreditation so he didn't just walk through. She said that one clue to his professional status came from the fact that the going rate for a sign-language interpreter was between $125 and $164 an hour, whereas his services were just $77 a day. AFP, Bloomberg, New York Times