The South African woman who claimed to have given birth to ten twins in early June lied. As reported by the BBC, in hospitals in the Gauteng province, in the Johannesburg area, no multi-twin births have been recorded and medical tests show that Gosiame Thamara Sithole, 37, had no recent pregnancies.
The reasons behind the staging are not known, but now the woman is under observation for alleged mental problems and will be offered psychological support.
L’ Indipendent Online, the South African newspaper that first broke the news, based on the statements of the woman’s husband, Teboho Tsotetsi, continues to support his version of events and claims that the story is not fake news. The newspaper reiterated that Ms. Sithole delivered the babies on June 7 at Steve Biko Academic Hospital in the capital, Pretoria, and accused the health facility of being unprepared to handle such a birth. The attempt to discredit the news would therefore serve to cover up a medical malpractice of the hospital. The local government returned the allegations to the sender, branding them as “baseless”.
The news had gone around the world and in a short time tens of thousands of dollars were donated to the couple by various benefactors. The record birth had beaten the previous world record, which now returns to Morocco, where two months ago a Malian woman gave birth to 9 twins.