Mandela Interpreter a Schizophrenic?

 

Many who watched the Nelson Mandela Memorial on December 10^th, 2013 may have had a few questions running through their minds. Are those baseball signs, gang signs, or just plain ole gibberish this interpreter’s throwing up? What is he doing? What is he thinking?!

And the answer to everyone's questions...

Thamsanqa Jantjie, the sign language interpreter accused of being a fake by the deaf community, is attributing his poor performance to him suffering from schizophrenia. In an interview with The Associated Press he elaborated on what he perceived happening while he was interpreting.

"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."

 

Jantjie acknowledged he's suffered from schizophrenia in the past and has even had violent outbursts in which he steered clear from commenting on. Instead, adding that his fear of armed security and embarrassing his country helped keep him in control during his performance.

"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."

In spite of being accused of faking sign interpretation Jantjie still stands by his performances. He recently told CNN, “I have never in my life had anything that said I have interpreted wrong.”

Jantjie also apologized to all he may have offended. Telling the AP, "I would like to tell everybody that if I've offended anyone, please, forgive me." He also added, "But what I was doing, I was doing what I believe is my calling, I was doing what I believe makes a difference."

Well...if Mr. Jantjie truly suffers from this serious disease, lets hope he's taking proper measures to get it right :)


Investigations are underway to determine how Jantjie was hired.