Year in Review: The full timeline of the saga that was the #Tembisa10
South Africans will never forget the story that kept us on the edge of our seats for the majority of 2021.
After stories of 10 babies, Guinness World Record hopes, a cheating boyfriend, national baby shower plans, a missing person report, and pretty much a decuplet of tales and misinformation - there finally came a statement about the greatest birth that never was.
The latest: Editor Piet Rampedi issues an apology, believes 'Tembisa 10' pregnancy was real
It has been a whirlwind of emotion of the past few weeks in South Africa as news of a Tembisa mom giving birth to 10 babies flooded our timelines. If you had to stick a magnifying glass to Pinocchio's nose, you'd probably find this whole story carefully carved all over his wooden nose.
It's the Fyre Festival of the baby world.
The story seemed so far-fetched and so captivating at the same time, especially when you consider the fact that a mom gave birth to nine babies in May 2021 in Morocco. It even had the Gauteng government in a spin with their famous, 'We have no record of the 10 babies ... Unless they were born in the air,' statement.
Nonetheless, we wanted to believe it - even if it was for all the right or wrong reasons. I mean, our very own Tembisa resident Gosiame Thamara Sithole putting South Africa in the Guinness World Book of Records would be amazing, right?!
And then everything started to unravel.
A cheating boyfriend, missing person report, fake missing person report, and now an admission by the 'father' that "there are no babies".
Now the saga could finally be reaching its end!
Editor Piet Rampedi's official apology
Piet Rampedi, the Pretoria News editor who first broke the 'news story' to the public, has issued an apology to Aneez Salie, the editor-in-chief of Independent Media, and to his fellow employees.
Although he is sad and regrets how the situation played out, he continues to stand by the fact that he believes Gosiame Sithole was pregnant and that she gave birth.
News24 has seen the email that Rampedi has sent and this is what he wrote:
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.
He also stated that he had no reason to doubt the couple, as he knew them.
In hindsight, he should have done more to verify the legitimacy of the claims for his story:
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.
He had also offered the story to another reporter who would have conducted the first initial interview, but the couple were not comfortable and declined.
So Rampedi proceeded with the story, but now sees the fatal mistake he had made:
However, judging by the sudden turn of events and the reaction from the government and our detractors, I was wrong. It was not necessarily a feel-good story. It was an investigative story and ought to have been treated as such.
Hopefully, Piet, his employers, the entire media industry, and every other South African out there have learnt a very important lesson.
Read below for a full timeline of all the almost unbelievable events that took place since the #Decuplets entered our lives:
Tembisa 10 Father doesn't believe babies exist
According to News24, Tebogo Tsotsetsi - the supposed Tembisa 10 father - has admitted that he doesn't believe that his girlfriend gave birth to ten babies. In a statement released by his family, it was admitted that he had never seen the decuplets and was solely relying on the word of the 'mother', Gosiame Sithole. He has also tried on numerous occasions to visit his girlfriend and the Tembisa 10, but to no avail.
According to the family's statement:
- We recognise and appreciate the support given by Piet Rampedi during the pregnancy from late last year
- Tebogo Tsotetsi informed Pretoria News and Piet Rampedi of the decuplets based on the information he received from his girlfriend
- The family never claimed to have seen the decuplets and relied on the call and WhatsApp confirmation from the girlfriend
- The family lost contact with Gosiame Sithole and with her phone off they opened a case of a missing person
- Notes failed attempts to visit and see the mother and decuplets The matter remains very sensitive and worrying, especially with Gosiame Sithole’s whereabouts unknown and we call on members of the public to stop donating money into any bank accounts for the decuplets.
- Tsotseti family (News24)
We should have seen all the signs; no hospital records, no actual proof, no photos of the babies, and the list goes on.
But hey, we live in a crazy world where strange things happen all the time, right? One thing for sure is that we can finally put this one to rest... or can we? We guess we'll just have to wait to hear from Piet - the original author of the 'Exclusive' story. There may not have been any babies after all, but Piet definitely gave birth to one cradle-rocking bedtime story.
The Tembisa 10 - the greatest birthing that never was.
Tembisa 10 missing person report filed and faked
It turned out that the missing person report was fake news.
According to News24, a missing person case has been opened for the Tembisa mother who has been making headlines all week. It is believed that the case was filed at a police station in Tembisa South.
According to the report, Gosiame Sithole went missing on 6 June.
Tembisa 10 father accused of cheating
Earlier this week, people across the country were completely shocked when news broke on Tuesday that a mother had given birth to 10 babies, decuplets, breaking the Guinness World Record for most babies delivered at once!
As the days went by, more and more people have become suspicious and believe that Gosiame Thamara Sithole and Teboho Tsotetsi, the parents of the elusive babies, might be deceiving everyone.
There has been no evidence to prove that the babies were ever born and several government departments have stated that they have been trying to track done Sithole, but have had no success and cannot confirm the birth.
They also cannot find any proof that the couple is even married, which has now shed some light on even more allegations against the father, Teboho Tsotesi.
According to a source close to Sithole who spoke to The Citizen, the couple are indeed not married and although the original Pretoria News article reported that they were a married couple, they kept referring to Sithole by her married name and said she was employed.
The source, however, claims that Sithole is not married and she is also unemployed. Her affair with Tsotetsi has also led her to be shunned by her strict, religious family.
The source is very concerned about Sithole as they have tried to locate her but she doesn't know where she is. Many have tried to locate her to no avail and she has even asked to be discharged, but she was denied.
Some of the allegations that have been made against her "husband" Tsotetsi include him not even being present for the birth of his 10 children. He had apparently been in Cape Town meeting with Iqbal Surve, a quite controversial businessman, who had donated R1-million to Tsotetsi, according to the Daily Voice.
Conveniently enough, Pretoria News and Daily Voice, the only news publications with exclusives on this developing story, are both owned by Independent Media of which Surve is the executive chairperson.
The Citizen also states that the source they had spoken to says that Sithole has been mistreated during her pregnancy, berated for not using contraceptives, and that even now, Tsotetsi's intentions are questionable.
They have even obtained a voicenote and it suspected that the voice in the recording belongs to Tsotetsi and was sent to Sithole. The voicenote is in Setswana and has been translated as follows:
Baby, I am begging you, please, and I hope that you understand … the talkative person that you have given your number to or the friends that you have spoken to or anyone else, please tell them that you cannot talk to them. They must check today’s edition of Pretoria News, there are details there. Don’t talk to anyone, please. They will spoil things that I am currently busy with. I told you that I am going to Cape Town, I am currently in their offices. I just got good news that I need to share with you. I beg you, don’t speak to anyone, whether they’re your friends or they say they are a social worker. Help will come on its own in the proper way, our way. Let us not rush it. Already, this thing has been publicised, by next week Monday a lot of things will be in place.
Call us crazy but this all does seem very suspicious.
Although there is no proof of any kind, we'll just continue waiting in anxious anticipation to find out whether or not this is all one big hoax.
In some related news, ECR's very own Carol Ofori decided to launch an in-depth investigation into the case: