Draft:Tembisa 10

The "Tembisa 10" (also spelt "Thembisa 10") was a South African journalistic hoax that claimed the birth of 10 babies in a single pregnancy by a 37-year-old Gauteng woman. It was published by the Pretoria News on 8 June 2021 and attracted a lot of media attention with its claim of the birth breaking the Guinness World Record. The babies were found to be non-existent shortly afterwards and the article declared a 'hoax'.

Tembisa 10

Author	Piet Rampedi
Subject	A 37-year-old woman allegedly gave birth to 10 babies in one pregnancy
Set in	Johannesburg
Publisher	Pretoria News
Publication date	8 June 2021
Publication place	South Africa
Media type	Newspaper article

Senior journalists saw the report as a gaffe in South Africa's journalism history and called it a "phantom illegal scam-piece not worthy of publication.”

Background

On 8 June 2021, the Pretoria News published a front-page story with a photo of a heavily pregnant woman named Gosiame Thamara Sithole from Tembisa Township in South Africa's Gauteng province. The story read like this:

Exclusive: Gauteng woman gives birth to 10 children, breaks Guinness World Record

By Piet Mahasha Rampedi, 8 June 2021

A Gauteng woman has given birth to 10 babies, breaking the Guinness World Record held by Malian Halima Cissé who gave birth to nine children in Morocco last month.

Gosiame Thamara Sithole, 37, gave birth to her decuplets – two more than doctors had earlier detected during the medical scans – at a hospital in Pretoria last night, said her partner Teboho Tsotetsi.

He said Sithole, who hails from Tembisa Township in Ekurhuleni, delivered her seven boys and three girls by Caesarean section.

Sithole, who has six-year-old twins, previously told the Pretoria News that her pregnancy was natural as she was not on fertility treatment.

Speaking to the Pretoria News last night, Tsotetsi said Sithole gave birth to their bundles of joy 29 weeks into her pregnancy.

“It’s seven boys and three girls. She was seven months and seven days pregnant. I am happy. I am emotional. I can’t talk much. Let’s talk again in the morning please,” Tsotetsi said.

In an interview at their family home in Tembisa last month and the publication of which was delayed at the request of the couple for safety and cultural reasons, Sithole said she was shocked and fascinated by the pregnancy.

She said she had been in a state of disbelief when the doctors told her earlier this year that she was expecting six children (sextuplets) before further scans showed that it was in fact octuplets.

Two others could not be detected initially because they were inside the wrong tube, Sithole said.

“I am shocked by my pregnancy. It was tough at the beginning. I was sick. It was hard for me. It’s still tough but I am used to it now. I don’t feel the pain anymore, but it’s still a bit tough. I just pray for God to help me deliver all my children in a healthy condition, and for me and my children to come out alive. I would be pleased about it,” Sithole said.

The retail store manager said she was initially dubious when the doctors told her she was pregnant with octuplets.

“I didn’t believe it. I doubted it. I was convinced that if it was more, it would be twins or triplets, not more than that. When the doctor told me, I took time to believe it. Even when I saw the scans I didn't believe it. But, as time went by, I realised it was indeed true. I battled to sleep at night though.”

Sithole had sleepless nights worrying about her unborn children. “How would they fit in the womb? Would they survive? What if they came out conjoined at the head, in the stomachs or hands? Like, what would happen? I asked myself all these questions until the doctor assured me that my womb was starting to expand inside. God made a miracle and my children stayed in the womb without any complications.”

Sithole said that even if it wasn’t an easy journey, she was over the moon and looking forward to her children.

“Initially there were six children. Only to find that the other two were in the wrong tube. My legs were painful. The doctors did further scans and they found the children were in the wrong tube. That was sorted and I have been okay since then. I can’t wait for my children. We have already given them names.”

Tsotetsi, who is unemployed, said he was also overwhelmed by shock when he was told about the pregnancy. “I could not believe it. I felt like one of God’s chosen children. I felt blessed to be given these kinds of blessings when many people out there need children. It’s a miracle which I appreciate. I had to go do my own research on whether a person could really conceive eight children. It was a new thing. I knew about twins, triplets and even quadruplets,” Tsotetsi said.

“But after I found out that these things do happen, and saw my wife’s medical records, I got even more excited. I can’t wait to have them in my arms.”

He said Sithole went through a lot because she experienced leg pains eight weeks into her pregnancy, followed by heartburn.

Professor Dini Mawela, the deputy head of the school of medicine at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, said Sithole’s case was rare and usually caused by fertility treatments.

The children would spend the next few months in the incubator because it was a “high risk” pregnancy, Mawela said.

“It’s quite a unique situation. I don’t know how often it happens. It’s extremely high risk (pregnancy). It’s a highly complex and high-risk situation. The danger is that, because there is not enough space in the womb for the children, the tendency is that they will be small. What would happen is that they would take them out pre-term because there is a risk if they keep them longer in there. The babies will come out small, chances of survival compromised. But all this depends on how long she carried them for.”

She said that the causes of such pregnancies were “either nature, or somebody who was having fertility treatment”.

“Remember, when they do fertility treatment, they inject as many eggs as possible to increase the chances of conception because the assumption is that some of them would die. But they might all survive. So, I don't know whether she conceived this naturally, which is possible, or whether this is a product of fertility treatment,” Mawela added.

Sithole has broken the record of the most children born at the same birth held by Cissé, who gave birth to nine children (nonuplets) at a hospital in Morocco last month.

Before Cissé, the record holder of the most children delivered at a single birth to survive was reportedly American Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to eight children in 2009. Her octuplets were conceived through in vitro fertilisation.

Later on that day of 8 June, News24, a rival online newspaper of Pretoria News, ran an article on its website and reported that the South African government was unable to verify the report of the birth. It quoted government spokeswoman, Phumla Williams, who said:

We need to verify this story and provide assistance where needed. Government has been unable to verify the authenticity of this birth at our facilities," said Williams.

The following day, 9 June, Pretoria News ran another front-page article on the birth - written by Rampedi again - titled, 'Exclusive: Mother of 10 babies who broke Guinness World Record appeals for help', in which the public was being asked to donate anything towards the needs of raising the Sithole's babies as the father was unemployed. It said the woman was employed by a retail store in the Ekurhuleni area but then the salary "would not even cover the costs of the helpers she would have to employ to take care of her bundles of joy" if she returned to work.

Soon after this 'appeal for help' story was published, social media users launched the #NationalBabyShower campaign and donations began pouring for the decuplets. One of South Africa's largest food companies, Lucky Star, pledged to donate a year’s supply of the food it produces to the family as part of helping them raise the kids. The owner of Independent Media, the company under which the Pretoria News falls, Iqbal Survé, pledged a R1-million and was unclear how much was deposited into the bank account that was made public by Pretoria News on 9 June.

But as the day of 9 June went by, the story of the decuplets was now starting to create national confussion as government officials denied such births took place at their facilities. Thabo Masebe, spokesperson for the Gauteng government, said no public or private hospital in the whole of the Gauteng province had records of the births "unless they were born in the air".

We have no record of the 10 babies at any Gauteng hospital. Unless they were born in the air... we checked both private and public hospitals and no-one knows about the case. Another question is, where are the obstetricians who delivered the babies and the paediatrician who is looking after them? No-one is coming forward.

— Thabo Masebe, Gauteng government spokesperson,9 June 2021

On 10 June, Pretoria News ran another article; this one titled, 'Tembisa 10: Dad says S.A. will see the babies when the time is right' and caused even more confusion. The story featured a picture of the l