Diva's Wish

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Johannesburg - The man who has been blasted on social networks and accused of providing “fake” sign language interpretation at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service says he suffered a schizophrenic episode.

Image: dailymail.co.uk

Thamsanqa Jantjie said his schizophrenia, for which he takes medication, has not only left many people angry and accusing him of being an impostor, but it was also the reason he was medically boarded a few years ago, resulting in him having to rely on a social grant now.

He doesn’t know whether it was the magnitude of what he was doing or the happiness he felt throughout the day that might have triggered the attack while on stage.

Suddenly he lost concentration, and started hearing voices and hallucinating.

Afterwards, it all went downhill and he just signed things that didn’t make sense.

“There was nothing I could do. I was alone in a very dangerous situation. I tried to control myself and not show the world what was going on. I am very sorry, it’s the situation I found myself in.”

Jantjie said that although he was having an episode and continued seeing things and hearing loud voices in his head, things that impaired his ability to hear well and interpret what was being said, he couldn’t leave, so he stayed on and continued to sign things that didn’t make sense.

“Life is unfair. This illness is unfair. Anyone who doesn’t understand this illness will think that I’m just making this up,” he said.

The 34-year-old man makes ends meet by interpreting, and pictures in a document at his house show him on duty next to various people, including President Jacob Zuma.

When SA Interpreters, the company Jantjie works for, told him on Monday that he would interpret at the memorial service, Jantjie said he felt honoured to be part of that historic event.

He was to be paid R850 for the whole day’s job, he said.

The office of the Presidency has since contacted Jantjie to find out who recommended him for the job.

Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane said the government would investigate what happened.

The Star spoke to SA Interpreters’ Thoneka Ngqase, but she asked that she be contacted later because she was in a meeting. She never answered her phone after that or responded to SMSes.

Meanwhile, Andries van Niekerk, spokesman for the National Institute for the Deaf (NID), told Sapa that what happened during the memorial service was unacceptable.

“The interpreter at the service was clearly not competent and did not use hand shapes, movements or facial expressions typical of South African sign language,” he said.

“The NID is saddened that the deaf in attendance (at the service) could not understand what other great statesmen said about the legacy that the father of our nation leaves behind.”

Van Niekerk said the deaf community was outraged. – Additional reporting by Sapa

Schizophrenia in a nutshell

A mental disorder characterised by a breakdown of thought processes and by impaired emotional responses.

Common symptoms are delusions including paranoia and auditory hallucinations, disorganised thinking reflected in speech, and a lack of emotional intelligence.

Source: IOL

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the father of the nation, has died on December 5 2013 at the age of 95.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the father of the nation, died on December 5 2013 at the age of 95.

President Jacob Zuma made the announcement from the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Thursday night. He said Mandela passed away at 8.50pm at his home in Houghton, Johannesburg, surrounded by his wife, Graça Machel and members of his family.

Zuma said Mandela would have a state funeral and that flags would fly half-mast from December 6 until after the funeral.

Zuma called on South Africans to "recall the values for which Madiba fought".

Long illness
Mandela was hospitalised on June 8 with a recurring lung infection. Initial reports from the Presidency suggested Mandela was stable, although his condition was serious. But on June 23, the Presidency announced that Mandela's condition had deteriorated and he was critical.

Court affidavits soon confirmed that the former statesman was on an assisted-breathing, life support machine. More reports emerged about Mandela in the days that followed—that he was in a "permanent vegetative state"—although the presidency denied these, maintaining that he was "critical yet stable".

On his 95th birthday, July 18, Zuma announced an improvement in Mandela's health. Mandela was discharged from hospital in September and transported to his home in Houghton. In November, his family said he remained "quite ill", but his pneumonia had cleared up. Zuma visited Mandela on November 18 and said he was still in a critical condition, but that he continued to respond to treatment.

On December 3, his daughter, Makaziwe Mandela, said the former president was "strong" and "courageous", although he was "on his death bed". Mandela's grandson, Ndaba Mandela, said his grandfather was "not doing well", although, "he is still with us".

His declining health has been the subject of speculation over the past few years. He was diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer in 2001 but made a full recovery. In 2011, he was admitted to hospital following a severe respiratory infection and a year later underwent a scheduled surgery for a longstanding abdominal complaint.

Mandela was plagued by recurring lung ailments in recent years. He spent 18 days in hospital at the end of 2012 and, despite receiving home-based high care thereafter, was back in hospital in March and April 2013.

There were renewed fears for his health when he returned to hospital in June. Despite assurances from the presidency that he was in a "serious but stable" condition, South Africans began preparing themselves for the worst as Mandela's family members flocked to Johannesburg, struggle stalwarts paid visits to the icon, and the world's media gathered in Qunu, Houghton and at the Pretoria hospital where he was treated.

The much-loved Mandela, known affectionately as Tata Madiba, became increasingly frail and retired from public life in 2004 at the age of 85.

Mandela's last public appearance was a brief one, at the end of the Soccer World Cup in 2010. Since then, he has split his time between his home in Houghton and his ancestral home in Qunu in the Eastern Cape.

Mandela became the symbol of the struggle against apartheid after he was convicted in the Rivonia Trial of charges of sabotage and was sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island.

At the end of his trial, Mandela gave a now iconic speech in which he said: "I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal, which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

Mandela, a key figure in the African National Congress, who helped found the party's youth league and armed wing, Umkhonto weSizwe, was imprisoned for 27 years before he was finally released in 1990 at the age of 71.

Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, together with former president FW De Klerk, for the "peaceful termination of the apartheid regime and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa". A year later, he was elected president in the country's first democratic election.

He stepped down from the presidency in 1999 after one term in office but continued with a busy public schedule. He brokered negotiations for peace in Rwanda, established the Mandela-Rhodes Foundation for educational scholarship, and launched the 46664 Aids fundraising foundation.

Source - Mail and Guardian -mg.co.za

Ex-cons Kenny Kunene and Gayton Mackenzie are deadly serious about their Patriotic Alliance.

Image: howzit.msn.com

The noise is not just going to come from Julius Malema in the run-up to next year's national elections. Juju's former party pals, ex-convicts Gayton McKenzie and Kenny Kunene, have thrown themselves into the launch of a newly registered national political party, the Patriotic Alliance.

The business partners were once serious crowd-pullers, whose personalised number plates on their luxury vehicles, when parked together, summed up their attitude: "X-con" and "So What."

Sushi king Kunene thought nothing of spending R700 000 on his 40th birthday party, and the pair drew criticism from the ANC for hosting lavish events, awash with champagne and with sushi arranged on the bodies of almost nude models.

Their new political venture will be a more sober affair. "At the conference on Saturday [November 30], there will not even be one small bottle of champagne," McKenzie said this week. "No sushi or models. We are on a new path and we are very serious about what we are doing."

McKenzie said he had to persuade Kunene to quit Malema's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and join the party he was busy founding with others. "I was the one who stole Kenny from the EFF," admitted McKenzie, who is a family man. "I had to convince him to leave the EFF because Kenny has the pull factor."

The Patriotic Alliance has already set up offices in Cape Town, and its interim leaders will be elected at a conference in Paarl in the Western Cape this weekend.

"I don't want to become a member of Parliament and nor does Kenny," said McKenzie, although he will be eligible to take up a seat as he was released from jail more than five years ago. "We want to work with the people on the ground."

McKenzie said he knew the fact that he spent seven years in jail for two counts of armed robbery would cause a stir in the political arena. A motivational speaker and mining consultant, the businessman has also come under intense scrutiny in the media over his involvement in controversial mining deals with Gold Fields and Central Rand Gold in Johannesburg.

Kunene, who spent six years in jail for fraud, met McKenzie in prison and they teamed up for business ventures on their release in 2003.

McKenzie has been telling his 42 291 Twitter followers (as of Thursday this week) that his shady past is not going to stop him from turning his hand to politics.

"It's not hard to hear the shrieks of protest from people saying it can't be right for a former criminal like myself to become a politician," he posted.

'Friends and people with money'
Although he did not say where the funding will come from to run the party, McKenzie pointed to "friends and people with money", adding that the Patriotic Alliance planned to contest the national elections next year.

Kunene has gamely thrown his weight behind the new party, which still has to outline its policies. The pair claim to have turned their focus to helping to broker peace among gangs on the Cape Flats, which is a far cry from their activities during their extravagant party days.

This year Kunene and McKenzie visited former Hard Livings leader Rashied Staggie at Worcester Prison. Police were not concerned about the visits by the pair to see Staggie, a fighting general in the 26s prison gang. A police source told the M&G the pair had discussed a "new political movement" with Staggie.

McKenzie said he did not know whether Staggie would be encouraged to join the party when he goes on full parole in March next year.

Patriotic Alliance national organiser Saintes van Wyk said the party's membership was growing rapidly. "By last Sunday, we had signed up 432 000 members," said Van Wyk, who laughed heartily when asked whether he too was an ex-con. "This is not provincial political, it is registered nationally, and we are working on the ground in all nine provinces."

What Malema had to say:

Approached for comment on Kunene's planned party, Malema said: "I don't know what he is doing. I can't comment on things I know nothing about."

So what chance does the Patriotic Alliance stand in the national elections? Dr Piet Croucamp, who teaches politics at the University of Johannesburg, said that smaller parties, particularly those with a provincial focus, were unlikely to garner enough support to get seats in Parliament. "Because the Patriotic Alliance is [currently only] organising in the Cape Flats, it is unlikely to be too effective," he said.

McKenzie, however, said the Cape Flats campaign was just the beginning, and organising would be done around the country. The new party plans to draw in heavyweights from the ANC and the DA. "It will be a vibrant party for the youth of this country … just you wait and see."

To the voting South African

Is this new party worth your vote? Or is this all child's play?!

Source- Mail and Guardian- mg.co.za

So the Crown Gospel Awards took place during the weekend and as per usual I was very much disappointed... Not with the actual event but with the outfits worn by some of our gospel artists! It doesnt seem like there is any planning when it comes to their out fits, its just a last minute kind of thing where it suddenly clicks that "" Oh I must attend the awards to night, let me grab my curtains or my child matric dance dress..."" Like really, I'm tired of seeing bridemaids dresses and wedding gowns year after year at this event, somebody should please school them!!...

Well enough said, Here's who wore what at the Gospel Grown Awards, before I start preaching style...

Well lets start with Zanele Mbokazi who is one of the brains behind this events. To think that since she knows then whens of these awards thereforre she would come up with a breath taking outfit... Oh how I WAS WRONG. She decided to wear a chicken neck dress but I'll give her credit for the hair. Amen to the weave and thumbs down to her usual mrobozo! ( mind my zulu)

Dear Sbu da Poet what were you thinking? This colour blocking trail is so not in the right track my brother...

Sis Hlengiwe Mhlaba I have no words to discrib this attire....

Thank god she's covered this time and its a bliss she never won anything... It was about time she gave others a chance

Thembi Seete was a beauty. Simple, elegant, on point

Thobekile Mkhwanazi did it right this year

Vicky Vilakazi, I never know that we were playing angels this year. She mistaken the awards for a christmas play.

Sfiso Ncwane with his glow in the dark blazer...

Lusanda Mcinga darling, never wear that blazer again, burn it , throw it in the trash, anything but do not ever wear it again.

Dj Happy Gal in red, your sister wants her matric dress back please.. I'm not happy with this look at all...

Lol... * Close to tears* Ewu Jeso... I simple have no words.

Let me wrap this scene up before I die from laughter.

Full list of winners:

Best Gospel Community Radio Show — Imbokodo FM, Injobo Ithungelwa Ebandla
Best Gospel music video — Andile kaMajola, uJehova Ungibiyele
Best Community Outreach — David Tebs
Best Engineer — The Plain Truth Band, All in
Best AmaZioni Group — Ukuphila KweGuardian, Angisabi Lutho
Best Gospel Poetry — Sbo da Poet
Best Gospel Producer — Nathi Zungu, Umlondi
Best Traditional Gospel — Lufuno Dagada, My Practical God
Best Church Choir — Christian family Church
Best Gospel Group — Smply Chrysolite
Best Gospel Artist – Winnie Mashaba
Best Gospel Song — Dumi Mkokstad, Mbize
Best Gospel male — Jabu Hlongwane
Best Female — Vicky Vilakazi
Best Gospel Rock — Niel Higgins
Best Praise — Worship House

Images : Sowetan Live