The man accused of faking his sing language interpretations while standing alongside world leaders at former South Africa President Nelson Mandela's memorial service on Tuesday, Dec. 10, blamed a Schizophrenic episode for the controversy.

Thamsanqa Jantije said he was suffering from hallucinations due to schizophrenia, New York Post reported. He claims he began hallucinating and seeing "angels" at the memorial service, and tried not to panic due to the presence of armed guards around him.

Jantije stood next to world leaders like President Obama at the ceremony and initially insisted that he was doing proper sign-language interpretation of all the speeches given in honor of Mandela, who died on Dec. 5. However, many experts in the field of sign-language have since dismissed his claims, calling his motions "gibberish."

Jantije has since apologized for the episode.

"I would like to tell everybody that if I've offended anyone, please, forgive me," he said. "But what I was doing, I was doing what I believe is my calling, I was doing what I believe makes a difference."

"There was nothing I could do. I was alone in a very dangerous situation," he told IOL News. "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."

Jantije has also explained that he has suffered from such episodes before, and was even once hospitalized in a mental health facility for over a year. He also claims he was supposed to get a regular six-month mental health checkup on the day of the ceremony to determine if he needed his medication changed, but didn't go.

Tags
Trending