Fake Interpreter (Inadvertently) Exposes South African Leader's Incompetence

   

Fake South African Interpreter

Frankly, I'm glad the Sign Language interpreter at Nelson Mandela's memorial service turned out to be a phony.   Otherwise, President Obama and other world leaders would have traipsed down to South Africa, paid their respects to a larger than life political and moral leader, superficially surveyed the landscape and  declared that Nelson Mandela's successor is doing a fine job.  Well apparently, Jacob Zuma is not.  While members of  Zuma's ANC party gave President Obama a rousing cheer, they booed their own leader. The fake interpreter fiasco might help us to understand why.


The security breach at the memorial service attended by one hundred heads of state,including our own president, could have been catastrophic.  It turns out that the phony interpreter, a man named Thamsanqa Jantjie had recently been released from a one-year stay in a mental hospital, was on medication to curb schizophrenic hallucinations, had been convicted of murder and doesn't even speak English.  If that were not scary enough, the man explained in an interview with the Associated Press that he had violent tendencies, saw angels entering the stadium that day and was struggling not to panic "because there were armed policemen around me."

I was shocked and angry when I first heard of the subterfuge.  But then the details tumbled out and all I could feel for this  man was sadness and relief that nothing terrible happened.  As for South African President Zuma, well, that's a different matter altogether.   Mr. Jantjie was paid $85, to do sign language interpretation for the entire event, and nobody in the government now seems to remember who hired him.  The "why he was hired" is easier to fathom. Other interpreters would cost thousands of dollars in such a high-level event.

If the South African government is hard-up for cash, it may have something to do with the fact that their president is awash in corruption scandals. Just recently he spent $27 million to upgrade the palatial mansion where he houses his five wives.  The compound will include a helicopter landing pad, a tennis court and a soccer field, sports stadium and underground bunkers. 

The spirit of Nelson Mandela is as dead in South Africa as the body they just buried.