The onstage interpreter at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service has been accused of being “a fake” by a number of South African interpreters, as well as a deaf member of the country’s parliament.
“There was zero percent accuracy,” an interpreter with Deaf Federation of South Africa told Reuters. The organization’s director, Bruno Druchen, echoed those sentiments, saying the man “was moving his hands around but there was no meaning in what he used his hands for.”
Druchen’s wife, Wilma Newhoudt-Druchen, a South African parliament member who is deaf, also indicated that the man was not communicating anything through his motions. Below is a video of the ceremony featuring both the so-called interpreter at the event as well as a television interpreter, who accurately communicated the speakers’ remarks in sign language (via New York magazine):
The identity of the interpreter, who has been featured at past government events, is currently unknown, but the South African government said it is looking into the incident and his identity.