The South African woman who recently made worldwide headlines after she allegedly gave birth to decuplets, 10 babies, is now being detained at a mental hospital after it was established that she never gave birth at all. In fact, investigations have established that the “decuplets mom” was not even pregnant at all.

This was revealed by the Gauteng Provincial Government of South Africa who said that 37-year-old Gosiame Thamara Sithole from Gauteng is currently receiving psychological, medical and social support at the hospital to help her cope with the situation.

The provincial government also said that it has instituted legal proceedings against Piet Rampedi, the Editor of the Pretoria News. Rampedi was the one who personally wrote what was then an exclusive scoop about how Sithole had set a new Guinness record by giving birth to 10 live children.

Below is the statement from the Gauteng Provincial Hospital on the Decuplets mom which we are publishing in its entirety.

STATEMENT OF THE GAUTENG PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT ON THE SO-CALLED “DECUPLETS”

Following reports published by the Independent Media group about a Gauteng woman having given birth to decuplets on Monday, 7 June 2021, the Gauteng Provincial Government conducted a thorough check with all hospitals in the province to establish the veracity or otherwise of reports. None of the hospitals in the province, public and private, had any records of such births at their facilities.

On 17 June 2021, the Pretoria News published a report based on a statement made by the Independent Media alleging that Gosiame Sithole gave birth to decuplets at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital, and that government was trying to cover up medical negligence. These allegations are false, unsubstantiated and only serve to tarnish the good reputation of Steve Biko Academic Hospital and the Gauteng Provincial Government.

Social workers attached to the Gauteng Department of Social Development made contact with Ms Sithole to establish her whereabouts to determine how the department could provide any assistance and care for her and her children. The social workers became concerned with Ms Sithole’s state of health and arranged for her admission at Tembisa Hospital for observation. Ms Sithole was admitted to Tembisa hospital on 18 June 2021, and various medical tests were conducted on her to determine her state of health. Initially, she was meant to be kept at the hospital for 72 hours, which lapsed on Tuesday, 22 June 2021. Upon completing their preliminary examination on Monday, 21 June 2021, her doctors recommended that she be kept at the hospital for a further 7 days for further observation, in accordance with the Mental Healthcare Act.

It has now been established by medical practitioners that Ms Sithole did not give birth to any babies in recent times. It has also been established that she was not pregnant in recent times. The Gauteng Provincial Government will continue to give medical, psychological and social support to Ms Sithole and provide any counselling she might require.

The Gauteng Provincial Government is deeply concerned by the conduct of the Independent Media, particularly the Editor of the Pretoria News, Mr Piet Rampedi. The Provincial government has instructed the State Attorney to institute legal action against Mr Rampedi and the Independent Group.

Rampedi has already written a letter to his colleagues apologising for bringing the organisation into disrepute. Part of the letter which was published by the Citizen on Tuesday reads,

“I am sorry for the reputational damage the aftermath of the story has caused for the group, the company and my colleagues in general. I am fully aware that the story, and the general response, put all my colleagues in an awkward position and under immense public pressure.

“To be blunt, the story provided detractors with an opportunity to cast aspersions on the professional integrity of not only myself but also my colleagues in the group. For that, I am extremely sorry. It was unfortunate. And I would like to apologise to you, my colleagues and the group.”

Although Rampedi maintained that Sithole was pregnant and gave birth, he admitted that he had been shoddy in verifying the facts.

“Even though I stand by the fact that Sithole was pregnant, some aspects of the story could have been dealt with differently. Could I have handled the story much better? Definitely! Especially the verification process. Quite honestly, I never treated the decuplets story as an investigation at all. I used no investigative tool or checklist.

“They had no reason to lie to me about the pregnancy. For me, it was a story of celebration. Hence, I never demanded documentary proof of the pregnancy, such as scanners and clinic cards, for instance, as I would normally do with an investigative story. There was nothing to investigate, I thought.”