Fake signer at Mandela event says he hallucinated





However, she declined to say whether a government department, the presidency or the ruling African National Congress party was responsible for hiring the sign interpreter, telling reporters it isn't the time to "point fingers and vilify each other and start shouting."






However, he added: "If in fact the individual was not signing, that's unfortunate because that meant that people who rely on sign language to follow the speeches were not able to."


The government left many questions about the bizarre episode unanswered, including how much money the translation company was paid and Jantjie's precise role in the company — and even whether it really exists.





Jantjie, meanwhile, insisted he did proper sign language interpretation of the world leaders' speeches. But he also apologized for a performance dismissed by many experts as gibberish.




Asked if he had ever been violent, he responded: "Yes, a lot."

He declined to provide details, but responded to another question about his past violence by suggesting his illness was behind it. "I'm suffering from a very difficult illness. The illness that you are not in position of understanding yourself at times."

Jantjie said that on the day of the memorial service he was due for a regular six-month mental health checkup to determine whether the medication he takes was working or needs to be changed, or whether he should enter a mental health facility for treatment.

He did not tell SA Interpreters that he was due for the checkup, but said an owner of the company was aware of his condition.

Police went to his home later Thursday to check on his well-being and determined that he was not a danger to himself or others, police spokesman Brigadier Neville Malila said.

A medical expert with University College London said Jantjie's unusual sign language didn't look like it was caused by schizophrenia or another psychosis.

"The disruption of sign language in people with schizophrenia takes many forms, but this does not look like anything I have seen in signers with psychosis," said Jo Atkinson, a clinical psychologist and researcher at the Center for Deafness, Cognition and Language.

Jantjie said he is officially classified as disabled by the government because of his schizophrenia. He said he has been on medication for nine years, and had taken it the day of the memorial service.

Jantjie said he received one year of sign language interpretation training, though advocates for the deaf say qualified interpreters in South Africa must undergo five years of training.


Associated Press reporters Ray Faure and Nastasya Tay in Johannesburg and Nedra Pickler in Washington contributed to this report.


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