Mandela Interpreter Says He Was Hallucinating

JOHANNESBURG—The sign-language interpreter accused of making up hand gestures at Nelson Mandela’s memorial said Thursday that he is schizophrenic and was hallucinating at the time.
The revelation raises questions about security at an event where he stood beside U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders.

“I’m currently a patient receiving treatment in schizophrenia,” Thamsanqa Jantjie said in an interview with a Johannesburg radio station, Talk Radio 702. He said he was certified to translate spoken English into sign language, and that he has successfully handled other high-profile events in South Africa for deaf audiences.
But Mr. Jantjie said that as he took the stage within arms’ length of Mr. Obama and other leaders at a memorial in a Johannesburg soccer stadium on Tuesday, he slipped into an altered state. He said he saw angels coming into the stadium.

“I don’t know the attack of this problem, how will it come,” he told the Associated Press on Thursday. “Sometimes I get violent on that place. Sometimes I will see things chasing me.”
In the radio interview, Mr. Jantjie refused to elaborate on his medical treatment. Efforts to reach him by phone were unsuccessful.

Advocates for the deaf in South Africa and beyond said Mr. Jantjie’s gestures showed little connection to what Mr. Obama, top South African officials and other dignitaries were saying.

“The structure of his hand, facial expressions and the body movement did not follow what the speaker was saying,” said Braam Jordaan, an official with the World Federation for the Deaf.

Mr. Mandela, who died last week at 95 years of age, drew more than 90 heads of state as well as movie stars and rock stars to the 90,000-seat stadium. Mr. Jantjie’s gestures were projected on large screens to those in the stadium and to millions more watching on television.
Mr. Jantjie said in the radio interview that he had interpreted at other high-profile events including the funeral of Albertina Sisulu, one of Mr. Mandela’s comrades in the fight against white-minority rule in South Africa. She died in 2011.
“If I was interpreting wrong through these years why should it become an issue now?” he said.
The African National Congress confirmed that it had hired Mr. Jantjie before. But the party Mr. Mandela led to power as South Africa’s first black president in 1994 said that Tuesday’s memorial had been organized by the government, not the party.
“Until yesterday, the African National Congress had not been aware of any complaints regarding the quality of services, qualifications or reported illnesses of Mr. Jantjie,” the party said.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria wouldn’t comment about the potential risks of having Mr. Jantjie on stage just feet from Mr. Obama at a time when the interpreter said he was hallucinating.

South African officials tried to play down the incident. ” I don’t think we as a country need to first jump and say we should be embarrassed,” said Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, deputy minister for women, children and people with disabilities.

Collins Chabane, a minister in South African President Jacob Zuma’s cabinet, said on Thursday that he couldn’t comment on how Mr. Jantjie was hired or whether he was vetted until an investigation was complete.

“It’s not an urgent matter for now, let this investigation take its course,” Mr. Chabane told a South African cable news outlet. He suggested that vetting a qualified interpreter for the deaf was no simple task. “Me, I don’t know sign language. Even if you try to make sign language here I can agree with you, because I don’t know.”