Thamsanqa Jantjie, the interpreter who made up his own signs while supposedly providing the sign language translation during the memorial for Nelson Mandela on Tuesday claims to be suffering from Schizophrenia and says it caused him to panic onstage, leading him to make sign up as he went along.

Interpreter Says He Has Schizophrenia

“There was nothing I could do… I was alone in a very dangerous situation. 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,” Jantjie told South Africa’s Star.

Jantjie claims that he has been in treatment for Schizophrenia and did not skip any medication on the day of the memorial. However, he did reveal that, on the day of the memorial, he was scheduled for a doctor’s appointment to assess the effectiveness of his medication. He says that it could have been the onslaught of heightened emotions of the day that simply caused him to get distracted during the ceremony and begin hallucinating on stage.

“Life is unfair. This illness is unfair. Anyone who doesn’t understand this illness will think I’m just making this up,” Jantjie added.

Nelson Mandela Memorial Tainted By Inaccurate Sign Language

Jantjie, 34, became international news on Wednesday after the Deaf community began criticizing his performance, saying it was full of gibberish and exposing him as a potential fraud.

“The structure of his hand, facial expression and the body movements did not follow what the speaker was saying… I was really upset and humiliated,” said World Deaf Federation board member Braam Jordaan.

He insisits, however, that he is a qualified and licensed interpreter and has been working with an organization called SA Interpreters for years. According to the South Africa Translators’ Institute, Jantjie’s performance has elicited criticism in the past. Most notably, last year Jantjie’s job interpreting at the African National Congress elective conference was met with multiple complaints.

Authorities Investigating How Interpreter Was Hired

While inquiries are underway to determine how Jantjie obtained the job of interpreter at Mandela’s memorial, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, the South African deputy minister of women, children and people with disabilities did back up Jantjie’s statements, saying he was not a “fake."

“But normally when you provide a service at a particular level, you will be vetted. And as you could see, he had his accreditation, so he didn’t just walk through,” Bogopane-Zulu said.

Furthermore, the African National Congress (ANC) released a statement claiming they had received no prior complaints regarding Jantjie’s abilities as an interpreter and did not hire him for the service. They insist that they were unaware of Jantjie’s schizophrenia.

Bogopane-Zulu also added that the government had succeeded in finding Jantjie’s employers, but that they have since disappeared. “We managed to get hold of them and then we spoke to them, wanting some answers, and they vanished into thin air," he said. "They have been providing substandard service for years.”

Following the outrage at his performance, Jantjie tried to defend himself by saying that he was simply signing South African sign language, but the director of the Deaf Federation of South Africa, Bruno Druchen says that is not true. Druchen also claims that no one in the sign language interpretation community in South Africa has ever heard of Jantjie, despite his claims that he has been working successfully for years.

“The deaf community is in outrage… He is not known by the Deaf Community in South Africa nor by the South African Sign Language interpreters working in the field,” Druchen said.

– Olivia Truffaut-Wong

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