US: South Africa oversaw Mandela event security

The US Secret Service said Thursday that it had been solely up to South Africa to vet participants in Nelson Mandela’s memorial service, as a storm swirled over security at the event.

A fake sign language interpreter, who has admitted he has a mental illness, stood yards from President Barack Obama and other dignitaries at Tuesday’s ceremony in Soweto.

Claims that the man, Thamsanqa Jantjie, suffered a schizophrenic episode and hallucinations at the event, raised questions in the United States as to whether Obama had been in any danger.

Brian Leary, a Secret Service spokesman, said that it was the South African organizing committee’s responsibility to deal with participants and sign language interpreters.

“For the purposes of this memorial service, this would include vetting them for criminal history and other appropriate records checks,” Leary said, but did not confirm whether such precautions were taken by the South Africans.

He declined to give further details on the discussions the Secret Service had with South African authorities.

He did however say that wherever Obama travels, Secret Service agents are in close proximity to the president to deal with any security incidents.

A federal official meanwhile told AFP that US authorities had no legal standing to carry out any investigations into the events in Soweto.

Jantjie has been branded a fraud by members of South Africa’s deaf community, who said his signing amounted to little more than “flapping his arms around.”

On Thursday, he insisted he was a qualified signer, but said his behavior was down to a sudden attack of schizophrenia, for which he takes medication.

“There was nothing I could do. I was alone in a very dangerous situation,” he told Johannesburg daily The Star, adding that he was hearing voices and hallucinating.