Thamsanqa Janjie, the sign language interpreter hired by the planning committe for Mandela's memorial service came under serious backlash for his performance as a sign language interpreter.
Various groups including the South Africa Translator's Institute complained about his poor performance, infact those who understand signing say he was faking and did not make any sense.
In an attempt to do damage control, he has come out with conflicting explanation that raises more questions.
Speaking to CNN, Thamsanqa said he is a fully qualified interpreter and has been trusted in the past with other similar task with no fault. He referred to his portfolio and said he is a champion at what he does.Although he claimed to be suffering from schizaphrenia, a seriuos mental illness which is controllable and he was on medication, Thamsanqa reportedly refused to provide details about how he was awarded the job for such an important event. What seemed a mear embarrasment to him and the organizers at the begining, took another turn with question about the security risk involved by endangering the life of the many heads of state who stood just few feets away from this man who happens to be mentally unstable has he claims.
While blowing his horn as a champion in the CNN interview, he told NBC News that he was hallucinating at in the course of the service " ...and immediately I see angels coming to the stadium...and sometimes things like chasing me".
Really!!! If he was seeing angels or was being chased, what has that got to do with his poor signing?
Was he telling his audience the things he was seeing by signing wrongly or better still why didnt he run away from the chase.There are more questions unanswered.
We wait to hear from the South African Government as they conduct their investigations.
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