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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRelative: Mandela signer in group that burned men
The bogus sign language interpreter at last week's Nelson Mandela memorial service was among a group of people who accosted two men found with a stolen television and burned them to death by setting fire to tires placed around their necks, one of the interpreter's cousins and three of his friends told The Associated Press Monday.
But Thamsanqa Jantjie never went to trial for the 2003 killings when other suspects did in 2006 because authorities determined 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 South Africa's government and prompted a high-level investigation into how it happened.
Their account of the 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.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/Relative-Mandela-signer-in-group-that-burned-men-5068132.php
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)I am reminded of the Bush shoe-throw episode--stunning that someone could get that close to a President who is either a wackaloon (sign language guy) or intends to harm, even if mildly (shoe guy).