Nelson Mandela Memorial Interpreter 'Was a Fake'

[staticgirl]

The interpreter who signed Nelson Mandela's memorial on Thursday for deaf viewers was a fake, according to experts.

The man, who signed for a portion of the ceremony including US President Barack Obama's speech, was simply making up his own signs, the Deaf Federation of South Africa has said.

Deaf viewers in the stadium and those at home would have made little sense of yesterday's proceedings, including Mr Obama's speech.

David Buxton, the CEO of the British Deaf Association, said the unidentified man, who was supposed to be signing in South African, was "waving his hands around but there was no meaning."

Mr Buxton, who is deaf himself and speaks through an interpreter, said it was just "childish hand gestures and clapping, it was as if he had never learn a word of sign language in his life."

He said sign languages across the world share a similar structure and pattern, but his were just strange repetitive hand movements.

"It was hours of complete nonsense. He is clearly a fraud who wanted to stand on stage with big and important people. It's quite audacious if you think about it."

Mr Buxton, whose wife is South African and also deaf, said neither could not believe what they were watching.

"It is incredibly disrespectful and hurtful to the deaf community," he said.

The World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI), Sheena Walters, also said the sign language used was not recognisable as any accepted form of international or South African sign language.

The man was seen on stage immediately next to the speakers, which included members of Mandela's friends as well as world leaders, but seemed to be out of shot during Mr Obama's speech.

Wilma Newhoudt, a member of the ruling party and the first deaf woman to be elected to the South African Parliament, said the man communicated nothing with his hand and arm movements.

She tweeted during the ceremony: "ANC-linked interpreter on the stage with dep president of ANC is signing rubbish. He cannot sign. Please get him off."

Asked about the claim by The Associated Press, South Africa's government said it was preparing a statement.

South African Sign Language interpreter Francois Deysel said on Twitter that the interpreter was "making a mockery of our profession".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... -fake.html

Bizarre.

 

[rjmrjmrjm]

Knowing South Africa i'm not surprised... probably someones cousin.

 

[GNC]

Full story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25345627

South Africa's deputy disability minister says the government is investigating how a man who faked sign language at the Mandela memorial was given security clearance.

Thamsanqa Dyantyi, who stood alongside world leaders at the event, has denied being a fraud, and said he panicked when he began hallucinating.

He said he had schizophrenia, which had in the past made him act violently.

The agency that employed him, SA Interpreters, has reportedly vanished...

Mr Dyantyi himself has blamed his flawed interpretation on a schizophrenic episode.

He told the Associated Press he had often been violent in the past, and had been due to attend a routine mental health check-up on the day of the memorial, to determine whether he needed to be admitted to hospital.

He told the BBC that during the event, he had had a breakdown, and started hallucinating that angels were coming down into the crowd.

"I started knowing that I am not real, because it's not something possible. But believe me I saw them coming on stage.

"From that moment, it was not myself," he said, saying he had becoming concerned for the safety of people in the stadium and was "absolutely" aware that he was not signing correctly.

It's a shame if he really does have mental issues, but it is quite funny that he showed up and basically improved his way through the speeches! Not to mention weird that his agency has vanished and his excuse, of course.

 

[kamalktk]

Full story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25345627

South Africa's deputy disability minister says the government is investigating how a man who faked sign language at the Mandela memorial was given security clearance.

....

He said he had schizophrenia, which had in the past made him act violently.

With schizophrenia which has made him act violently previously, how did he get a security clearance to stand so close to so many dignitaries and heads of state?

 

[Mythopoeika]

He's just a fake who thought he could get away with it.

 

[liveinabin]

It's worrying that either someone with a history of violence, or as a faker, that he was able to get the security clearance.

Or could it be a case of a lie getting out of hand, like the episode of the IT Crowd where Jen pretends she can speak Italian? Or confusion like the chap they interviewed on New 24 by mistake.

 

[CarlosTheDJ]

S Africa investigates 'fake signer' security checks

South Africa's deputy disability minister says the government is investigating how a man who faked sign language at the Mandela memorial was given security clearance.

Thamsanqa Jantjie, who stood alongside world leaders at the event, has denied being a fraud, and said he panicked when he began hallucinating.

He said he had schizophrenia, which had in the past made him act violently.

The agency that employed him, SA Interpreters, has reportedly vanished.

South Africa's Deputy Disability Minister Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu admitted that hiring an unqualified sign language interpreter was a mistake but denies suggestions that the government should be embarrassed.

However, many South Africans, deaf people around the world and no doubt the US presidential security team will disagree.

Ms Bogopane-Zulu says the agency through which Thamsanqa Jantjie was recruited has "vanished into thin air" after providing a sub-standard service for many years - previous clients are said to have included other government agencies and the ANC.

Nobody has yet admitted to recruiting SA Interpreters and Mr Jantjie, but whoever was responsible will no doubt be asked to make a similar mea culpa.

This scandal is partially overshadowing the national mourning for Nelson Mandela, who continues to lie in state. South Africa will hope the outstanding questions will be answered before his funeral on Sunday.

The African National Congress (ANC) said it had used Mr Jantjie as an interpreter several times before, and "had not been aware of any of complaints regarding the quality of services, qualifications or reported illnesses" of the interpreter.

But it said Tuesday's memorial at a stadium in Johannesburg was organised by the state, not the ANC, so the ruling party could not comment on security arrangements.

The South African Translators' Institute said earlier there had been complaints over Mr Jantjie's work before, but that the ANC had taken no action.

The ANC said it would "follow up the reported correspondence that has supposedly been sent to us in this regard and where necessary act on it".

...........

There's another couple of paragraphs in the full story http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25345627

 

[ramonmercado]

It gets better.

'Fake' Mandela signer faced murder, kidnapping charges – report
http://rt.com/news/mandela-signer-murder-charge-249/
Published time: December 14, 2013 15:53
Edited time: December 14, 2013 17:12

In this picture taken on December 10, 2013 US President Barack Obama delivers a speech next to sign language interpreter Thamsanqa Jantjie (R) during the memorial service for late South African President Nelson Mandela at Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg (AFP Photo)

Thamsanqa Jantjie, who has shot to infamy over the ‘gibberish’ sign language gestures he used translating world leaders at Nelson Mandela’s memorial, was reportedly accused of murder 10 years ago.

Jantjie claimed he was suffering a schizophrenic episode at the Mandela memorial service.

National channel, eNCA investigations, discovered that Jantjie, who is receiving treatment for his schizophrenia, has also faced rape (1994), theft (1995), housebreaking (1997), malicious damage to property (1998), murder, attempted murder and kidnapping (2003) charges.

The outcome of the reported murder case was apparently unclear. However, eNCA stated that many of the charges filed against him were dropped because he was considered mentally unfit.

Court records show that the 2003 murder, attempted murder and kidnapping case filed against Jantjie was referred to the South Gauteng High Court in 2004 before being finalized in November 2006. However, the court file for the case is apparently empty.

Officials have stated that they are investigating these revelations. However, it still remains unclear why a man who is a self-confessed schizophrenic with violent tendencies was allowed to stand a mere three feet away from world leaders, including US President Barack Obama, who is reputedly the most well-protected man on the planet.

 

[Mythopoeika]

A friend today told me he reckoned he knew what was going on here.
A deaf signer in SA would normally earn something like £76 an hour, but this guy's normal rate was about £49 a day.
So...the person who procured his services billed the government £76 an hour, and paid the guy £49 a day...and pocketed the difference.

 

[Analogue Boy]

I bet he's going to end up as a lot of gif avatars though.

 

[escargot]

Reddit has them galore already. :lol:

 

[ramonmercado]

And now lets hare it for the cwazy wabbit.

Mandela statue: Row over rabbit in Nelson's ear
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25845603

The rabbit in the ear of the Nelson Mandela statue, Pretoria, South Africa

South Africa's government has ordered sculptors to remove a bronze rabbit they hid in the ear of a Nelson Mandela statue, unveiled after the former president's death last month.

It wanted to "restore dignity back to the statue", a spokesman told the BBC.

The sculptors reportedly inserted the rabbit as a trademark signature and to denote the haste with which they had to complete the statue.

Rabbit in the Afrikaans language is "haas", which also means haste.

Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote

You need a long lens or binoculars to see it”

Andre Prinsloo
Sculptor
Mr Mandela, who died at the age of 95, was widely acclaimed for his role in fighting white minority rule and promoting reconciliation after being elected South Africa's first black president in 1994.

The nine-metre (30ft) bronze statue was unveiled on 16 December, a day after Mr Mandela was buried.

It stands at the Union Buildings, the government headquarters in the capital, Pretoria.

With Mr Mandela's hands reaching outward, the statute was intended to show that he had embraced the whole nation.

'No trouser signature allowed'
Mogomotsi Mogodiri, the spokesman for the Department of Arts and Culture, said the sculptors had apologised for any offence caused to the government and Mr Mandela's family by placing the rabbit in the statue's right ear.

South African military jet fighters fly past a nine-metre (30ft) bronze statue of the late former South African President Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela is seen as a symbol of reconciliation
"Discussions are on-going about when the rabbit will be removed. Government wants it removed as soon as possible to restore dignity back to the statue," he told the BBC.

The sculptors, Andre Prinsloo and Ruhan Janse van Vuuren, said they had added the rabbit to the statue after the department refused to allow them to engrave their signatures on the trousers of the statue, South Africa's Beeld newspaper reported.

They said it also represented the tight deadline they work under.

"The time factor was big and at times we had to work hard," Mr Prinsloo is quoted as saying.

He said the "small symbol" was hidden in the ear and it did not take anything away from the statue.

"You need a long lens or binoculars to see it," he said.

"During the moulding process a lot of people had seen the statue up close and nobody noticed it."

Mr Mandela died on 5 December after battling a recurring lung infection.

 

[ramonmercado]

The tale of Nelson Mandela's rabbit
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-26784398

The rabbit inside the ear of Nelson Mandela's statue in Pretoria, January 2014

Once upon a time there was a little rabbit who lived in the ear of a statue - the statue of a man called Nelson Mandela.

The statue lived on a green in Pretoria and the rabbit, which was made of bronze like the statue, didn't get into mischief until one day somebody saw it.

Why, people asked, is a rabbit sitting inside the ear of this monument to the first black leader of South Africa, the man who helped end white minority rule, who promoted reconciliation, and who touched all our lives before he passed away in December?

"We don't think it's appropriate," government spokesman Mogomotsi Mogodiri told the BBC in January, "because Nelson Mandela never had a rabbit in his ear."

The sculptors pleaded that the little figure was just their trademark, and a way of saying how fast they had worked to get the statue made in time - the Afrikaans word for rabbit is haas, and that also means haste. And furthermore - you would need to look really hard to notice the tiny rabbit up there on the 9m (30ft) statue.

None of these arguments convinced the men in suits in the government offices in Pretoria. "It was agreed that it should be removed and that was done," said one of them this week. The rabbit is now gone - and all we know is that it was given back to one of the men who helped bring the statue to life, Dali Tambo.

Will appeals by tweeters to #savetherabbit fall on bronze ears? Will a suggestion by the animal rights charity Peta to adopt it be adopted? "We would be honoured," Peta says, "to use the bronze rabbit, the same animal who proudly leaps across Peta's logo, to honour Mandela's vision of a more peaceful, kinder world." Mr Tambo has said only that it might "end up in the garden near Mandela".

The lesson for small, cute bronze rabbits is clear: you may go into the fields or down the lane, but not into history.

The statue of Nelson Mandela statue in Pretoria, January 2014
Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

 

[ramonmercado]

Another incompetent signer.

Officials in Manatee County, Florida are under fire after an interpreter for the deaf warned about pizza and monsters during an emergency briefing related to Hurricane Irma.

The interpreter, Marshall Greene, a lifeguard for the county, has a brother who is deaf, according to the DailyMoth, a video news site that provides information via American Sign Language. Greene was used as the interpreter for a Sept. 8 press conference regarding the incoming storm and possible evacuations.

Members of the deaf community said Greene mostly signed gibberish, referencing "pizza," "monsters," and using the phrase "help you at that time to use bear big," during the event. Other information signed to viewers was incomplete, experts said. ...

http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/09/sign_language_interpreter_used.html