Fake Mandela signer 'helped burn men to death'

The bogus sign language interpreter at last week's Nelson Mandel's memorial service was among the group of people  who accosted two men with a stolen television and burned them to death by setting fire to tires placed on them, one of the interpreters cousins and three of his friends told the associate press monday.

But thamsanqa Jantie never went to trial for the 2003 killings when other suspects did in 2006 because authorities determind he was not mentally fit to stand trial, said the four.they insisted on speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the fake signing fiasco, which has deeply embarrassed  the South Africa's Government and prompted a high-level investigation into how it happened.

Their account of killings matched a description of the crime and the outcome for Jantjie that he himself described in an  interview published on Sunday 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 told AP Jantjie had been picked up by someone in a car Sunday and had not returned.his cell phone rang through to an automatic message saying Jantjie was not reachable.

Instead of standing trial, Jantjie was institutionalised 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 the AP last week he has schizophrenia and hallucinated, seeing angels while gesturing incoherently just three feet away from President Barack Obama and other world leaders during the Tuesday ceremony at a Soweto Stadium, signing experts said his arm and hand were mere gibberish.

In the interview last Thursday, Jantie said he had been violent in the past 'a lot' but declined to provide more details and blamed his violence on his shizophrenia, for wich he said was institutionalised for 19 months in a period that include time during 2006. the cousin and said the 'necklacing' killing suspected thieves occurred withing  a few hundred meters  from Jantjie' Tidy concrete home near ramshakle  dwellings.

The four spoke to AP on Monday in Jantjies neighbourhood, and one of his friends described himself as Jantjie's best friend.

Necklacing was a method of killing that was fairly common during the struggle against apartheid by blacks on black suspects of aiding the white government or belonging opposite factions. the method was also used in tribal dispute in the 1980's and 1990's. while people who encounter suspect thieves in South Africa have known to beat or kill them to mete out punishment, necklacing them have been rare.

An investigation is under way by South African officials to determine who hired Jantjie as the onstage interpreter at the Mandela memorial and if and how he recieved security clearance. the officials have not said how long their investigation will take, and reaching them for update was difficult Monday,a public holiday in South Africa.

Four government departments involved i organising the historic memorial service have distanced themselves from the hiring of Jantjie, telling the AP they had no contact with him. A fifth government agency, the depertment of public works, declined to comment and referred all inquiries about Jantjie to the to the office of South Africa's top government spokesman, who has only said a 'comprehensive report' will eventually be released.

Jantjie told told AP that he was hired by an interpretation company that has used him on a freelance basis for years. the address that Jantjie provided for the company was occupied by a different company that is not involved in interpreting for the deaf.

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  disqualified years ago on the basis of his health .

He was interpreting at the memorial in his personal capacity, Xozwa said. The ANC has said it has no role in hiring Jantjie for the memorial service but has acknowledged using him at party events in the past.

Two ANC spokesman and a  spokeswoman did not answer their coll phones on Monday, a public holiday, when AP tried to them for comments. 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 were necessary act on it, the ANC said in a statement last week.

The AP was unable to verify the existence of the school were Jantjie said he studied signing for a year. An online search for the school, which Jantjie said he called Komani and is located in easthern 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 qualification for deaf and deaf-blind communication techniques said it had never heard of the University.