JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South
Africa's government was confronted Friday with a new and chilling
allegation about the bogus sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela's
memorial: He was reportedly accused of murder 10 years ago.
Officials said
they were investigating the revelation by the national eNCA TV news
station. But they were unable, or unwilling, to explain why a man who
says he is schizophrenic with violent tendencies was allowed to get
within arm's length of President Barack Obama and other world leaders.
Investigators
probing Thamsanqa Jantjie "will compile a comprehensive report," said
Phumla Williams, the top government spokeswoman. But she did not say how
long the investigation would take and insisted details would not be
released until it was completed.
"We
are not going to sweep it under the carpet," Williams said. "We want to
own up if there is a mistake, but we don't want to be dishonest" to
Jantjie.
An Associated Press
reporter found Jantjie at a makeshift bar owned by his cousin on the
outskirts of Soweto Friday, near his concrete house close to shacks and
an illegal dump where goats pick at grass between the trash. Asked about
the murder allegation, Jantjie turned and walked away without saying
anything.
A day earlier, he
told the AP that he had been violent "a lot" in the past, has
schizophrenia and hallucinated during the Mandela memorial that angels
were descending into the stadium. He also apologized for his
performance, but defended his interpreting as "the best in the world."
His assertion was ridiculed by deaf advocates who said he didn't know how to sign "Mandela" or "thank you."
The
outcome of the reported murder case that eNCA said dated from 2003 was
unclear, and the television report did not disclose any details.
Officials
at the Johannesburg court where the murder charge was reportedly lodged
were not in their offices Friday afternoon and did not respond to email
requests seeking comment.
There were no records of a
murder case involving Jantjie at South Africa's National Prosecuting
Authority, but spokesman Nathi Mncube said that doesn't necessarily mean
Jantjie was never a suspect.
"I cannot confirm that the guy was charged, but I cannot deny it, either," he said. "There are no records right now."
Jantjie
also faced other lesser criminal charges in the past, eNCA reported. In
the interview with the AP, he blamed his past violent episodes on his
schizophrenia, but declined to provide details.
The
fiasco surrounding the use of Jantjie to provide sign language
translation before a worldwide television audience has turned into an
international embarrassment for South Africa, whose ruling party, the
African National Congress, and president, Jacob Zuma, have already lost
popularity because of corruption scandals and other public grievances.
But the ANC is far more powerful than the opposition and Zuma, who was
booed at the Mandela memorial, is likely to be its candidate in
elections next year.
The U.S.
assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Linda
Thomas-Greenfield, said Friday that "we're all very upset" about
Jantjie, who was just 3 feet from Obama at the memorial service for
Mandela, who died Dec. 5 at 95.
Thomas-Greenfield
told reporters in Kenya that U.S. officials are concerned about
security and how Jantjie could have gotten so close to world leaders.
She said officials were also dismayed because people watching around the
world who needed sign language weren't able to understand what was said
at the ceremony. She called the problem "extraordinarily sad."
South
Africa's arts and culture minister, Paul Mashatile, apologized for the
use of Jantjie on Friday, marking the second apology from the government
in two days, and said reforms must be implemented to ensure such an
incident doesn't happen again.
"Without
passing judgment, nobody should be allowed to undermine our languages.
We sincerely apologize to the deaf community and to all South Africans
for any offense that may have been suffered," Mashatile said in a
statement.
He did not comment on who was responsible for hiring the sign interpreter.
Four
government departments involved in organizing the historic memorial
service distanced themselves from the hiring of Jantjie, telling the AP
they had no contact with him.
A
fifth government agency, the Department of Public Works, declined
comment and referred all inquiries about Jantjie to Williams' office.
Williams
said the investigation would include trying to determine who hired
Jantjie or the company he said he worked for. She did not say how long
the probe might take, and police spokesman Lt. Gen. Solomon Mogale said
there would be no additional information released until after Mandela's
funeral Sunday in his hometown of Qunu.
The
government is also trying to determine how Jantjie received security
clearance and what vetting of his background — if any — took place.
Officials at the State Security Agency, in charge of security for the
event, have not commented publicly and by Friday had not responded to
questions submitted by email a day earlier by the AP.
The
government says the owners of the interpreting company have
disappeared, and the AP was unable to track down the school where
Jantjie said he studied signing for a year. An online search for the
school, which Jantjie said was called Komani and located in Eastern Cape
Province, turned up nothing.
Ingrid
Parkin, principal of the St. Vincent School for the Deaf in
Johannesburg, said she and other advocates for the deaf had never heard
of the school. She added that there are no known sign language
institutes in the province.
The
Star newspaper of Johannesburg reported Friday that Jantjie said he
studied sign language interpretation in Britain at the "University of
Tecturers."
"We're not aware of that university," said Emma
Mortimer, communications director of Signature, a charity that awards
qualifications in deaf and deaf-blind communication techniques.Even if he had studied in the United Kingdom, Mortimer said that wouldn't necessarily qualify him to work in South Africa because the country's two sign languages are different.
"It would be like you going to France and speaking English," she said.
__
Associated
Press writers Tendai Musiya and Gerald Imray in Johannesburg, Danica
Kirka in London and Jason Straziuso in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to
this report.
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