Faking it

[Gob]

Deaf viewers of Nelson Mandela's memorial service have complained that the official sign language interpreter was inept.

The Deaf Federation of South Africa told the BBC the man's signs were "arbitrary" and "did not make sense".

Wilma Newhoudt-Druchen, South Africa's first deaf female MP, tweeted that the interpreter was "signing rubbish".

She told the BBC the man was "employed by ANC head office or used by them" but didn't use South African sign language.

"ANC-linked interpreter on the stage with dep president of ANC is signing rubbish. He cannot sign. Please get him off," she tweeted during the live broadcast.

The ANC refused to comment on whether it had used the interpreter at previous events.

South Africa's government said it was preparing a statement, according to the Associated Press news agency.


The sign language interpreter has yet to be publicly identified.

Francois Deysal, who is a signing trainer at the Deaf Federation of South Africa, said he was "not known to the deaf community or other interpreters in South Africa".

South African sign language has its own structure and is not linked to any spoken language like Afrikaans, Xhosa or English, Mr Deysal told the BBC's Newsday programme.

South African Braam Jordaan, the Young Deaf Leader for the World Federation of the Deaf, told the BBC the man was "creating his own signs".

He said deaf people had been excluded in South Africa long before apartheid happened.

There is one sign language interpreter for every 10,000 deaf people in South Africa, he said via an interpreter.

The BBC's See Hear researcher Erika Jones, also a sign language user, said the man's signing seemed to have no grammatical base and kept repeating sign patterns when it was clear that the speaker was not using repetitive words.

Major national and international news channels broadcast Mr Mandela's state memorial service live on Tuesday.

The man was seen on stage signing as friends and family of Mr Mandela, and world leaders, paid tribute to the former South African president.

UK deaf news blog The Limping Chicken said the sign language interpreter had a "strange repetitive rhythm to his movements", and "the structure of his hand and body movements didn't seem to change no matter what the speaker was saying".

Blog editor Charlie Swinbourne said the man "made a mockery of our language".

If the accusations that the man was a "fake" turn out to be true, "on a day when the world saluted a man who fought oppression, a guy stood on stage and effectively oppressed another minority - deaf people", Mr Swinbourne wrote.

[Lord Jim]

I heard about that this morning...

Very weird...

[oldr_n_wsr]

I'll say it again
You can't make this stuff up.

[Joe Guy]

We should not judge him. He might have a communication disability, which would be equal to an extreme lisp or other speaking flaw in sign language.

[Lord Jim]

This makes it even weirder...

This was not the first time he's been used at a high profile public event, and apparently the ANC was aware of the fact that this guy was a phony:

The man also did sign interpretation at an event last year that was attended by South African President Jacob Zuma, Druchen said. At that appearance, a deaf person in the audience videotaped the event and gave it to the federation for the deaf, which analyzed the video, prepared a report about it and a submitted a formal complaint to the ANC, Druchen said.

In their complaint, the federation suggested that the man should take the five years of training needed to become a qualified sign language interpreter in South Africa. But the ANC never responded, Druchen said.

Druchen said a fresh complaint will be filed to the ANC about the interpreter he called a "fake" with a demand for an urgent meeting.

"We want to make a statement that this is a warning to other sign language interpreters who are fake and go about interpreting," Druchen said. "I am hoping the South African government will take notice of this."

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mandela-ser ... faking-it/

Here he is at the earlier event:



I have a sneaking suspicion that when the whole story comes out about how this happened, it could very well turnout that this is a well connected guy who bribed his way into getting this gig. Probably so he could have is mug forever associated with the event, recording him standing along side the parade of global dignitaries...

What a sad and embarrassing footnote to the service...

[MajGenl.Meade]

We shrug. "ANC" says it all. I doubt he bribed his way (I could be wrong) - more likely he's an incompetent cadre (which makes him par for the course) related to someone vaguely important - jobs for the boys.

[Rick]

He has seen the competition between the Pistons usher and the young boy and decided this was his only venue to join in

[Lord Jim]

This just gets better and better...

Mandela memorial interpreter says he has schizophrenia

South African minister admits 'mistake happened'[ya think?] in hiring of Thamsanqa Jantjie, who says he was hallucinating at service

A South African government minister has said that "a mistake happened" in the hiring of a sign language interpreter accused of gesticulating nonsense during the Nelson Mandela memorial service.

Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu said that officials have tried to track down the company that provided Thamsanqa Jantjie but that the owners "have vanished into thin air".[yeah, right]

Earlier on Thursday Jantjie claimed he is qualified but was hallucinating and hearing voices and said he is receiving treatment for schizophrenia.[Another story I read said that his resume was also falsified]

Millions of TV viewers saw Jantjie interpreting speeches by Barack Obama and other global leaders at the FNB stadium in Johannesburg. His gestures baffled and angered deaf people around the world, with experts saying he did not know even basic signs such as "thank you" or "Mandela". "There was nothing I could do," Jantjie, 34, told South Africa's Star newspaper on Thursday. "I was alone in a very dangerous situation. 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."

Jantjie said the episode meant he was seeing things and hearing loud voices in his head, impairing his ability to hear and interpret the speeches. But he could not leave so he persevered. "Life is unfair. This illness is unfair. Anyone who doesn't understand this illness will think that I'm just making this up."

He did not know what triggered the attack, he added, saying he took medication for his schizophrenia.

But in a radio interview, Jantjie said that he was happy with his performance at the memorial to the anti-apartheid struggle leader, who died a week ago aged 95. "Absolutely," he told Talk 702 radio. "What I've been doing, I think I've been a champion of sign language. I've interpreted in many big events. I've interpreted in MaSisulu's [Albertina Sisulu's] funeral. I interpreted at the Brics conference."

But he confirmed: "Yes, I'm currently a patient receiving treatment for schizophrenia."

On Wednesday South Africa's leading deaf association denounced him as a fake, saying he was inventing signs, and described the episode as an insult to deaf people and Mandela himself.

Asked how he felt about being the centre of such scrutiny, Jantjies said: "It is very sad at this present moment because I believe that it was an issue that had to be dealt with earlier. If the Deaf Federation of South Africa have an issue with my interpreting it was supposed to be in clarity a long time ago, not during this crucial time for our country."

He added: "If I interpreted wrong, why is it an issue now? Why wasn't it an issue when I was doing interpretation at MaSisulu's funeral and many big events in South Africa?"[Because for some reason, the ANC ignored the complaints]

Jantjie claimed he worked for a company called "SA Interpreters" which had been hired by the African National Congress for Tuesday's ceremony. Asked if he has a formal qualification, he replied: "Yes, absolutely."

The controversy has marred South Africa's 10-day farewell to Mandela, whose remains were lying in state for a second day on Thursday at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, where he was sworn in as the nation's first black president in 1994.

The government, which was in charge of the memorial service, has said it had no idea who he was and promised an investigation. The ANC also pleaded ignorance, even though footage from two major ANC events last year showed him signing on stage next to president Jacob Zuma. There have been complaints about him from deaf people before.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/d ... n-language

So (assuming this story is even true, a big assumption, given the fact he has done this before; he must have a lot of schizophrenic episodes while signing at public events ) this guy is standing two feet away from the President Of The United States and numerous other foreign leaders, having a schizophrenic episode....

Lovely...

But schizophrenic or not, phony resume or not, the bottom line is they had used this guy before and complaints were filed by representatives of reputable organizations for the hearing impaired, and somebody chose to ignore them and pick this guy for the most widely viewed global event in South African history...

Somebody is clearly just trying to cover their ass, and with preposterous stories about how some company, (which presumably they had used multiple times) just "vanished into thin air", they're not doing a very good job of it...

I have strong feeling this will continue to unravel...

[oldr_n_wsr]

You beat me to it Lord Jim. I just cut-n-pasted and article about this and come here to post it and there you did it already.
Oh well, thanks for the info.

If indeed he has some kind of brain problem AND is actually qualified in the sign language, (big "ifs") I wonder if the pressure of the moment causes the attacks?

I used to suffer from severe anxiety attacks (drinking took care of those) when pressure would mount. Might be a similar problem.

I'm just a "benefit of the doubt" kind of guy

[Gob]

You can just imagine him standing there; "This is money for old rope, just stand there waving my hands about. No one watches this bollocks in any case. Hey look, there's my girlfriend, I'll give her a wave..."

[MajGenl.Meade]

The fake interpreters name was revealed yesterday and it has also been discovered that he gave a fake reference according to Deaf SA. National South Africa language interpreter at Deaf SA, Delphin Hlungwane says the interpreter’s work reference is not creditable anywhere. “Thamsanqa said he was hired by a company called ‘Interpreters SA’ and that company does not exist, we even googled and found nothing.”

http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2013/ ... -not-exist

Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu said that officials have tried to track down the company that provided Thamsanqa Jantjie but that the owners "have vanished into thin air".

Well surprise! The Minister for Women, Children and People With Other Disabilities avoided the obvious - that the company was thin air to begin with. Then again she is part of

The government, which was in charge of the memorial service, has said it had no idea who he was and promised an investigation. The ANC also pleaded ignorance, even though footage from two major ANC events last year showed him signing on stage next to president Jacob Zuma.

.

So the very people who run Zuma, protect him and spend billions on "security" at his retirement home/village/town/city - not one of them hired this guy; not one of them knew who he was. He just rolled up at the podium and started gesticulating. What a bunch of utter bollocks.

I saw this guy on BBC news last night (or Sky) claiming that he was interrupted by "angels". I have some sympathy - he's a mentally ill man - but none at all for the incompetent arseholes who hire people like him (but with some semblance of sanity) repeatedly and by so doing run the country into the ground

Meade

[oldr_n_wsr]

Good thing he's just crazy and not a crazy suicide bomber.

[MajGenl.Meade]

The SA Sunday Times reports today (surprise! shock! horror!):

Thamsanqa Jantjie is not employed by Interpretors SA.... but by SA Interpreters! And boss-persons have not "vanished" after all but in fact are sitting one desk over from all the government and ANC people who deny having anything to do with anything.

Bantubahle Xozwa is the owner of SAI - and also the head of the ANC's religious and traditional affairs dept. Good old Bantu says: "Huh? Jantie works for us all right but he's just an administrator - he ain't no interpreter. In fact he was disqualified (from interpreting) years ago on the basis of his health. He was interpreting at the memorial service in his personal capacity." Well that's all right then.

But SAI also seems to be connected to Cikizwa Xozwa (good old Bantu's wife) who is ALSO - no, surely not - the office manager for ANC spokesthing Jackson Mthembu.

Over to Jackson (who is...er...the ANC): "Jantjie's services were secured by the government" (no we didn't - government) and the ANC "has over the years utilized the services of Jantjie" (not this time - ANC).

The deputy minister of Women, Children and Folks with Other Disabilities, Mme Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu (no chance of Xhosa, or Sotho, or Venda or... it's Zulu or nothing these days) and who is herself legally blind (I think) reported that: "We couldn't find the owner". Not surprising perhaps - he is two or three desks away and that's a distance even for a fully sighted person. "But he (Jantjie) must have been vetted and granted security clearance...there's no way you can just rock up and stand next to a president. Somebody, somewhere is lying." Good for her!

State security agency spokescreature Brian Dube: "these things are all being investigated"

Last word Jantjie:

"It was a community thing - what you call mob justice - and I was also there" referring to the public burning of two people by a mob 10 years ago for which he and others faced murder, attempted murder and kidnapping charges - which were dropped when he was found mentally incompetent to stand trial. "I am a patient of Sterkfontein (Psychiatric Hospital, Krugersdorp). I was discharged and started working after being medicated and monitor by doctors. My wife is the one who takes care of me and makes sure I take all my medication every day".

Brian Dube confirmed that Mrs. Jantjie will be executed, tried and then arrested for her obvious failure to protect the president.