Post date: Dec 11, 2013 5:42:25 PM
A fake sign language interpreter took to the stage during the memorial for Nelson Mandela on Tuesday angering the deaf community.
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (DECEMBER 11, 2013) (REUTERS) - A fake sign language interpreter took to the stage during Tuesday's memorial for anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela, gesticulating gibberish before a global audience of millions and outraging deaf people across the world.
While dignitaries were addressing the crowd in the 95,000-seat Soccer City stadium, the young, suited man with an official security pass round his neck produced a series of hand signals that experts said meant absolutely nothing."When I saw this, I actually felt very upset and I felt I wanted to go to the event and chase the interpreter off the stage. The memorial service of Madiba is such an important event and we feel embarrassed and the whole world was looking at us and it's serious," said Abraham Maripane who is responsible for training sign language interpreters.
DeafSA, South Africa's leading deaf association, condemned the presence of the unknown man at the memorial to Mandela attended by President Jacob Zuma and scores of world leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama.
"He got many things wrong, actual he got zero percent accuracy, if you do a comparison of what was said and what he was signing, zero percent accuracy some of the more basic mistakes, he couldn't even use the sign for Nelson Mandela, the sign name for Madiba," said Delphin Hlungwane, an official South African sign language interpreter at DeafSA.
"He did not use that sign, he did not use the sign for Obama, he did not use the sign for Zuma, thos are just the most glaring mistakes, of course there many other grammatical errors, there was basically no structure, no language structure, he's flouted all the language rules," she said.
Hlungwane added the deaf community had never heard of the man or used his services.
She said the 'interpreter' also failed to impart to television viewers - as he should have done - that the crowd gave a hostile reception to Zuma, a scandal-plagued leader who faces an election in less than six months.
The hunt is on for the man, whose identity is a mystery to South Africa's deaf community and the government, which was officially in charge of Tuesday's ceremony.
Zuma spokesman Mac Maharaj said he was checking the reports to try to determine the man's identity.