Now we all know Pretoria is notorious for producing Afrikaners with a less than passing knowledge of the “language of the anti-Christ” – as they would put it. Some would not consider English a second language, they would rather call it “a foreign language”. The interpreter’s mother told a Pretoria radio station – Jacaranda FM (it’s all in the name!) – that her daughter actually feared that she would face the same ridicule as the sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service.
She said her daughter had raised her concerns about being able to translate from Afrikaans to English, but that the justice department didn’t give her a choice because it didn’t arrange for a qualified interpreter.
“My daughter can speak English. She works at the regional court’s children’s division,” said the mother.
The interpreter was often corrected by the witness, Michelle Burger, who was speaking in Afrikaans during Monday’s trial. Eventually Burger spoke in English.
It was also reported that the first interpreter quit the case in an “emotional state” after seeing the media frenzy but this could not be verified.
