'Fake' Interpreter at Mandela's Memorial: I Was Hallucinating Angels

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By Fran Berkman2013-12-12 16:28:14 UTC

The man accused of faking sign language translations for more than three consecutive hours on stage at a memorial service for Nelson Mandela said he was hallucinating and that he suffers from schizophrenia.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Thamsanqa Jantjie said he saw angels entering the FNB stadium in Johannesburg where the service was held on Tuesday. He added that in the past, his schizophrenia has led him to violent actions.

Jantjie gesticulated emphatically during the speeches of U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders, seemingly translating their words into sign language for the deaf community. Following the memorial service, however, reports surfaced that Jantjie was not translating accurately at all.

"What happened that day, I see angels come to the stadium ... I start realizing that the problem is here," Jantjie told the AP. "And the problem, I don't know the attack of this problem, how will it comes. Sometimes I react violent on that place. Sometimes I will see things that chase me."

Jantjie added that he wasn't quite sure how to deal with the problem once it started because of the magnitude of the situation. "I was in a very difficult position," he said. "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."

Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, South Africa's deputy minister of the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, said hiring Jantjie was a mistake and that country's government has not been able to contact the owners of the company that provided the interpreter. During a news conference, she said that they had "vanished into thin air."

Jantjie told the AP he has successfully worked as an interpreter at events in the past for a company called SA Interpreters, which based in Johannesburg, and that he was paid $85 for the Mandela service. The AP found no trace of SA Interpreters at the address and phone number Jantjie provided.

On the day of the memorial service, Jantjie was due for a biannual mental health checkup during which doctors would assess the effectiveness of his medication and decide whether or not he needed to stay in a mental health facility, according to Jantjie's comments to the AP.

When Jantjie watched the video footage of himself "signing" at Mandela's memorial service, he claimed he had no memory of it occurring at all. He has since apologized for the incident and asked for forgiveness from anyone offended.

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Image: Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images

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