It was Deaf Con 4 at FNB

He stood just metres from the world's most influential leaders, unvetted by authorities.

By yesterday evening there were still no answers to how a bogus sign-language interpreter was allowed to take the stage at the biggest global event of the year, the Nelson Mandela memorial service on Tuesday.

Marlee Matlin, the only deaf actress to have won an Academy Award for best actress, tweeted: "Fake 'interpreter' makes up sign language during #Mandela service. Unbelievable!"

The "interpreter", whose name is known to The Times, first appeared in public at ANC Youth League press briefings. Efforts to contact the man last night were unsuccessful, but those who knew him said yesterday he was acting as if he had done nothing wrong.

"This guy has a problem; he just accepted a sign-language assignment and said he would attend. He seems not to be aware that he has been exposed," said an ANC member in North West.

The government passed the buck to the SABC, while the ANC offered no answers on whether the man's background had been checked to determine his credentials or whether he was a security threat.

The Deaf Federation of South Africa said it had warned the ANC about the interpreter more than a year ago after one of its members complained that he might not be above board.

ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu yesterday distanced the party from any personal association with the interpreter.

He said that though the interpreter had done work for the ANC on several other occasions - the most recent at Wits University when President Jacob Zuma made unflattering comparisons between Gauteng's upgraded and e-tolled freeways and those in Malawi - it did not mean the ANC had appointed him for the memorial.

"You are getting ahead of yourself," said Mthembu, when asked whether the ANC had played a part in procuring the man's services.

"Can you ask [the] government how they brought this individual there? That was a government service."

According to the deaf federation, the signs the man made at the memorial were "self-invented".

Delphin Hlungwane, an interpreter working for the federation, said the man had failed to use the established signs for former presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, President Jacob Zuma and even for South Africa.

Cara Loening, director of Sign Language Education and Development in Cape Town, said he had not been signing at all.

"He was just flapping his arms around. It was like there was a fly he was trying to slap away."

Loening said the man definitely was not certified.

The national director for the deaf federation, Bruno Drechen, said the interpreter had not used facial expressions.

"Facial expression plays a very important part in the meaning of a sign. Not only the hands, but also the face, the eyes and the whole body work together to communicate in sign language," he said.

The government yesterday said it would look into the matter and report any findings publicly.

But Manusha Pillai, from the government communications and information system, said the services of the interpreter were not acquired by the government but by the SABC.

SABC spokesman Kaizer Kgantago retorted: "We have nothing to do with that. We have our own interpreter in the studio."