The owner of the company was identified by the Sunday Times as Bantubahle Xozwa, who heads a religious and traditional affairs unit of the ANC.
Xozwa told the newspaper that Jantjie was an administrator in his company, South African Interpreters but “is not an interpreter” because he was “was disqualified years ago on the basis of his health.”
“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 service, but has acknowledged using him at party events in the past.
Two ANC spokesmen and a spokeswoman did not answer their cellphones on Monday, a public holiday, when AP tried to reach them for comment. A number listed for Xozwa in Johannesburg rang unanswered.
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 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 said they have never heard of the school and said there are no known sign language institutes in the province.
The Star newspaper of Johannesburg reported Friday that Jantjie said he studied sign language interpretation in Britain at the “University of Tecturers.” A British charity that awards qualifications for deaf and deaf-blind communications techniques said it had never heard of the university.
___
Associated Press writer Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi in Johannesburg contributed to this report.
Article Appeared @http://news.yahoo.com/relative-mandela-signer-group-burned-men-131624843.html