And no one is talking about apartheid, are they?
Related:
Mourning Mandela
Next Day Update Updates
"Interpreter at Nelson Mandela event says he was hallucinating; Questions arise about security at Mandela service" by Alan Clendenning and Juergen Baetz | Associated Press, December 13, 2013
JOHANNESBURG — The man accused of faking sign interpretation while standing alongside world leaders, including President Obama, at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service said Thursday he hallucinated that angels were entering the stadium, has schizophrenia, and has been violent in the past.
Thamsanqa Jantjie said in a 45-minute interview with the Associated Press that his hallucinations began while he was interpreting and that he tried not to panic because there were ‘‘armed policemen around me.’’ He added that he was once hospitalized in a mental health facility for more than 18 months.
The statements by Jantjie also raise serious security issues for Obama, other heads of state, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who stood next to Jantjie as they made speeches at FNB Stadium in Soweto, Johannesburg’s famed black township. The ceremony honored Mandela, the antiapartheid icon and former president who died on Dec. 5.
So who is next to be assassinated?
A South African deputy Cabinet minister, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, later held a news conference to announce that ‘‘a mistake happened’’ in the hiring of Jantjie. However, many questions remain, including who in the government hired the company that contracted Jantjie, how much money the government paid the company, and Jantjie’s own involvement with the company — and even whether it really exists.
With Mandela lying in state here for a second day, the government found itself in an awkward position, unable to explain how Jantjie had gotten the job while admitting that it had paid a bargain rate for Jantjie to the company that supplied him, which in turn has “vanished into thin air.”
By midday Thursday, huge lines had formed again as thousands more people endured soaring temperatures and long delays to catch a glimpse of the former president....
Oh, yeah, him.
AP journalists who visited the address of the company that Jantjie provided found a different company there, whose managers said they knew nothing about SA Interpreters. A woman who answered the phone at a number that Jantjie provided confirmed that she worked at the company that hired him for the service but declined comment.
Government officials said they have tried to track down the company that provided Jantjie but the owners ‘‘have vanished into thin air,’’ said Bogopane-Zulu, deputy minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities.
She apologized to deaf people around the world who were offended by Jantjie’s incomprehensible signing and said an investigation is underway to determine how Jantjie was hired and what vetting process, if any, he underwent for his security clearance....
Jantjie insisted in the AP interview that he was doing proper sign-language interpretation of the speeches of world leaders. But he also apologized for his performance that has been dismissed by many sign-language experts as gibberish.
‘‘I would like to tell everybody that if I’ve offended anyone, please, forgive me,’’ Jantjie said. ‘‘But what I was doing, I was doing what I believe is my calling.’’
This is mine here, and I'm really sick of it. Eight years was enough for this slop, especially since it was an essentially useless endeavor. The Globe and AmeriKan media hasn't changed, they have gotten worse, and you can give up on this government. It is beyond saving.
‘‘What happened that day, I see angels come to the stadium . . . I start realizing that the problem is here. 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,’’ he said.
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"Mandela interpreter’s criminal record includes murder charge; Officials looking into reports from TV station" by John Eligon and Alan Cowell | New York Times, December 14, 2013
QUNU, South Africa — The South African government said Friday that it was looking into media reports that the man hired to provide deaf interpretation at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service had once been accused of murder and other serious crimes.
The reports added new intrigue to the scandal surrounding the supposed interpreter, who used incomprehensible sign language and later said he was a violence-prone schizophrenic who hallucinated.
The South African television station eNCA reported Friday that the man, Thamsanqa Jantjie, 34, who has been accused of providing bogus interpretation as he stood beside many world leaders during the memorial service Tuesday, had been charged with murder in 2003. He also faced charges of rape, theft, housebreaking, malicious damage to property, attempted murder, and kidnapping, dating to 1994, according to the news station.
A spokesman for the country’s National Prosecuting Authority, Nathi Mncube, said the agency could not confirm or deny the report because it was still searching for criminal records on Jantjie. The news station said it had taken less than 48 hours for it to uncover Jantjie’s record. The murder charge was resolved in 2006, the news station said, but the nature of the disposition was unclear.
Jantjie could not be reached for comment.
Deeply embarrassed by the scandal, the government has promised a full investigation into how Jantjie got the job. Sign language experts were outraged by his performance, saying he’d made a mockery of sign language interpretation during the memorial service.
His story became more bizarre on Thursday when Jantjie was quoted in multiple interviews as saying he had schizophrenia, sometimes reacted violently, and had seen angels descending into the Soweto sports stadium where the Mandela memorial was held.
Meanwhile, for a third and final day, thousands of South Africans filed past the body of Mandela on Friday....
Oh, yeah, that.
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So jwho benefits from the Jewish media's focus?
