Just when it seemed
the scandal over the bogus sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela's
memorial had run its course, a cousin and three friends say he was part
of a mob that accosted two men found with a stolen television and
burned them to death by setting fire to tires placed around their necks.
Thamsanqa
Jantjie never went to trial for the 2003 killings when other suspects
did because authorities determined he was not mentally fit to stand
trial, the four told our correspondence. They spoke on
condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the fake signing
fiasco, which has deeply embarrassed South Africa's government and
prompted a high-level investigation into how it happened.
Their
account of the killings matched a description of the crime and the
outcome for Jantjie that he himself described in an interview published
by the Sunday Times newspaper of Johannesburg.
"It was a community thing, what you call mob justice, and I was also there," Jantjie told the newspaper.
Jantjie
was not at his house Monday, and the cousin said Jantjie had been
picked up by someone in a car the day before and had not returned. His cellphone
rang through to a message saying Jantjie was not reachable.
Instead
of standing trial in 2006, Jantjie was institutionalized for a period
of longer than a year, the four said, and then returned to live in his
poor township neighborhood on the outskirts of Soweto. At some point
after that, they said, he started getting jobs doing sign language
interpretation at events for the governing African National Congress
party.
Jantjie told our correspondence that he has
schizophrenia, hallucinated and believed he saw angels while gesturing
incoherently just 3 feet away from President Barack Obama and other
world leaders at the memorial on Tuesday. Signing experts said his arm
and hand movements were mere gibberish.
In the
interview Thursday, Jantjie said he had been violent "a lot" in the
past, but declined to provide details. He blamed his behavior on his
schizophrenia, saying he was institutionalized for 19 months, including a
period during 2006.
The 2003 killings,
carried out by a grisly method known as "necklacing," occurred a few
hundred yards (meters) from Jantjie's tidy concrete home, according to
the cousin and friends, one of whom described himself as Jantjie's best
friend.
Jantjie said he was hired by an interpretation company that has used him
on a freelance basis for years. The address Jantjie gave, however, was
occupied by a different company that is not involved in interpreting for
the deaf.
"He
was interpreting at the memorial service in his personal capacity,"
Xozwa said. The ANC has said it had no role in hiring Jantjie for the
memorial, but has acknowledged using him at events in the past.
The
Deaf Federation of South Africa has said it filed a complaint with the
ANC about bogus signing by Jantjie at a previous event where South
African President Jacob Zuma was present.
"We
will follow up the reported correspondence that has supposedly been sent
to us in this regard and where necessary will act on it," the ANC said
in a statement last week.
The AP was unable to
verify the existence of the school where Jantjie said he studied
signing for a year. An online search for the school, which Jantjie said
was called Komani and located in Eastern Cape Province, turned up
nothing. Advocates for the deaf say they have never heard of the school
and there are no known sign language institutes in the province.
---
Associated Press writer Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi in Johannesburg contributed in writing this report.
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