(Updates with number of hearing-impaired
South Africans in ninth paragraph.)
Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- A translator used to communicate
with hearing-impaired people at a memorial service held for
Nelson Mandela earlier this week wasn’t a “professional sign
language interpreter”, a government deputy minister said today.
“He can speak sign language with his peers, but he was not a
professional,” Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, deputy minister of
women, children and people with disabilities, told reporters in
Johannesburg today. “To be able to translate to sign language
you have to be able to understand the language that is being
spoken on the podium and the English was a bit too much.”
Thousands of South Africans gathered in the rain Dec. 10 at
the country’s biggest stadium to mark the life of Mandela,
South Africa’s first black president, who died at his home in
Johannesburg on Dec. 5 at the age of 95. Thamsanqa Jantjie’s
sign language at the event attended by U.S. President
Barack Obama and United Nations Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon was described as “meaningless” and a “disgrace”
by the Deaf Federation of South Africa.
Jantjie, who stood next to Obama and other world leaders as
they delivered tributes to Mandela, was registered with an
organization called South African Interpreters that has now
disappeared, Bogopane-Zulu said.
“With regards to the company, we did track down the owners,”
she said. “We spoke to them wanting some answers and they
vanished into thin air. It’s a clear indication that over the years
they have managed to get away with this. They have been
providing sub-standard sign language interpreting services
to many of their clients and nobody has picked up.”
Cheaper Fee
Jantjie, who’s first language is Xhosa -- the same as Mandela’s
-- was paid 800 rand ($77) for the full-day event, Bogopane-Zulu said.
That compares with as much as the 1,700 rand an hour typical fee for
a sign language interpreter, she said.
Jantjie is receiving treatment for schizophrenia, he told
Johannesburg’s 702 talk radio station today. The Johannesburg-
based Star newspaper reported that Jantjie had a schizophrenia-
related attack on stage, citing an interview with the translator.
Jantjie could not be reached on his mobile phone.
“I’ve been a champion of sign language,” Jantjie, 34, told 702.
“I’ve interpreted at many conferences, including the presidential
conference, and there was no one at all who said I interpreted wrong.
If what I had been interpreting was wrong all these years, why
should it become an issue now?”
Meaningless Gestures
Jantjie’s hand shapes and gestures were meaningless, according
to the Deaf Federation of South Africa, which says its represents
about 600,000 people that are culturally and linguistically deaf.
He didn’t use the established and recognized signs for the names
of Mandela, South Africa President Jacob Zuma, former president
Thabo Mbeki as well as South Africa, the organization said yesterday.
“We are shocked by the quality of sign language interpretation”
at the memorial service,Paul Breckell, chief executive of the U.K.-
based charity Action on Hearing Loss, said in an e-mailed statement
yesterday. “Deaf or hard of hearing people across the world were
completely excluded from one of the biggest events in recent history.”
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