Mandela memorial sign language interpreter a 'fraud'

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"He's a complete fraud," Cara Loening, director of Sign Language Education and Development in Cape Town told AFP.

Attended by nearly 100 sitting and former heads of state or government, the speeches at Mandela's memorial on Tuesday were supposed to be interpreted into sign language for deaf viewers.

"He wasn't even doing anything, There was not one sign there. Nothing. He was literally flapping his arms around."

The interpreter, who translated eulogies including those of US President Barack Obama and Mandela's grandchildren, looked as if he was "trying to swat a few flies away from his face and his head".

"The deaf community in South Africa are completely outraged and nobody knows who he is," said Loening.

South Africa's Translators' Institute said they already had reservations about the interpreter, who has previously signed at the ruling ANC party's events, including its centenary anniversary last year.

"We suspect there was something underhand about him," the institute's chairman Johan Blaauw told the domestic SAPA news agency. "How else was he working on such an important occasion when he did not seem to know what he was doing?

Delphin Hlungwane, a spokeswoman for the Deaf Federation of South Africa, said the man picked for the job was "just gesturing in the air".

"He didn't interpret at all, he had zero percent accuracy," she said.

The government said it had launched an investigation following the allegations, the results of which would be made public.