The guy who served as the sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela's memorial service has been panned--deservedly so--for his dreadful performance. It was so dreadful, in fact, that several sign-language experts think he was a fake. But now it turns out that there were more fundamental concerns than the quality of his work. It turns out that organizers for the memorial service weren't aware that he had a history of schizophrenic episodes.
Thamsanqa Jantjie, 34, was accused of gesticulating gibberish during Tuesday's service. Members of the deaf community said his movements did not resemble any recognized form of sign language and some groups accused him of being a "fake."
Jantjie told NBC News that he is currently receiving treatment for schizophrenia and had been violent in the past. He said he started hearing voices in his head during the Mandela event and hallucinated visions of angels flying into the stadium.
Asked by The Associated Press how often he had become violent in the past, he said "a lot," but he declined to provide details.
"There was nothing I could do. I was alone in a very dangerous situation," he said in a separate interview with Johannesburg's Star newspaper. "I tried to control myself and not show the world what was going on. I am very sorry. It's the situation I found myself in."
As it turns out, Jantje didn't disclose his mental condition to the organizers of the memorial service. As a result, this guy was allowed to get within three feet of President Obama and other world leaders. When NBC News security analyst James Cavanaugh found out about this, he was flabbergasted.
"There should not be a person there if that person is not completely vetted and they know exactly who they are," said Cavanaugh, a retired special agent-in-charge for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). "There are too many terrorists in that region of the world to take even the slightest chance to have a person that's not really known that close to world leaders."
The South African government is investigating. But its probe has been hindered somewhat by the fact that Jantje's company seems to have gone into hiding. Deputy minister of women Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu says that the government has tried to get in touch with Jantje's employer, SA Interpreters, but they seem to have "vanished into thin air." It would seem to me that if anyone outside of his immediate family was to make sure this guy was getting treatment, it would be his employer. And they should have been responsible enough to disclose his condition to the memorial organizers if he didn't do so. Seems to me that these people are among many whose heads need to roll for this.