The bogus sign language interpreter at the Nelson Mandela memorial service has been accused of being part of a gang who burned two men to death.
Thamsanqa Jantjie was among a group who found the men with a stolen television and burned them to death in 2003, a relative and three friends claimed.
They said tyres were placed around the men’s necks and set ablaze. Unlike two other suspects who went to trial in 2006 for the killings, they said Jantjie never did because he was determined mentally unfit.
The men, including one of Jantjie’s cousins, insisted on anonymity because of sensitivity surrounding the bogus signing, which embarrassed South Africa’s government.
They say Jantjie was institutionalised and then returned to his neighbourhood on the outskirts of Soweto.