Mandela memorial had ‘fake’ interpreter

The sign language interpreter at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela was a ‘fake’ making up his own gestures, sign language experts say.

“The so-called interpreter… at FNB stadium has been dubbed the ‘fake interpreter’ and the deaf community is in outrage,” said Bruno Druchen, national director of the Deaf Federation of South Africa (DeafSA), in a Wednesday statement.

“He is not known by the Deaf Community in South Africa nor by the South African Sign Language interpreters working in the field,” Druchen added.

The interpreter stood close to US President Barack Obama and other heads of state at the FNB stadium in Johannesburg and provided sign language interpretation in the Tuesday memorial service.

Druchen added that the man showed meaningless facial expressions and hand signals during the ceremony held to commemorate the anti-apartheid icon. “It is a total mockery of the language.”

Deaf actress Marlee Matlin also said that the suited interpreter “was doing baseball signs” instead of correct signals in the ceremony.

South African sign language interpreter Francois Deysel says “it is embarrassing and making a mockery of our profession.”

Meanwhile, Jackson Mthembu, a spokesman for the ruling African National Congress, said, “We have used him on some occasions but yesterday was not an ANC event so we cannot answer for yesterday.”

Collins Charbane, the minister for performance monitoring and evaluation in the South African presidency, has said that the government has launched an investigation into reports on security issues during the event.

Tens of thousands of people and some 100 heads of state have taken part in the memorial service for Mandela.