Friday 13 December 2013

Mandela Memorial Interpreter: I saw Angels

Thamsanqa Jantjie
The sign language interpreter widely ridiculed for his performance at the Nelson Mandela memorial has asked for forgiveness from the deaf associations across the world for his behaviour.
“For the deaf association, if they think that I’ve done a wrong interpretation, I ask for forgiveness,” Thamsanqa Jantjie said on Thursday.
But he said he has long been “a champion of what I’ve been doing.” He also said he is schizophrenic.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Mr. Jantjie said he saw “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 come. Sometimes I get violent on that place. Sometimes I will see things chasing me,” he said.
“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.”
The sign language interpreter also said he stood by his work.
Mr. Jantjie told journalists in Johannesburg that he was a fully qualified interpreter and had been trusted in the past with other big events as an interpreter.
“I’ve interpreted in many press conferences, including the presidential conference,” he said. “There was no one at all that said I interpreted wrong.’’
Reports however suggest that there were complaints last year after Mr. Jantjie interpreted the proceedings at the ruling African National Congress elective conference, the institute’s Chairman, Johan Blaauw told the South African Press Association.
“If I was not interpreting right, why was it was not picked up at that time?”

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