South African authorities have stepped in as doubts and controversies continue to arise regarding the world’s first birth of decennials. South African media reported that the mother of the decennials has undergone a mental health examination.
Ms. Gosiame Thamara Sithole once said that she got pregnant completely naturally – Photo: ANA
According to Eyewitness News, Gosiame Thamara Sithole, the woman who claimed to have given birth to octuplets , was taken to Tembisa Hospital in Gauteng province, South Africa on June 17 for a mental health examination.
“Medical assessment showed she was not pregnant. There was also no surgical scar,” a source said.
According to Eyewitness News, Ms Sithole was detained under the Mental Health Act, which allows South African authorities to detain a person for 72 hours for a psychiatric assessment.
Meanwhile, IOL quoted Ms. Sithole’s lawyer Refiloe Mokoena as saying that Ms. Sithole was “detained against her will” at Tembisa Hospital in Johannesburg, Gauteng province, and doctors examined her.
“She did not want to go to Tembisa Hospital for psychiatric evaluation because she was mentally sound,” Mokoena told South African news site IOL . According to Mokoena, Tembisa Hospital did not allow her lawyer and the psychiatrist she proposed to visit Sithole.
Some of Mrs Sithole’s relatives still insist that Mrs Sithole gave birth to 10.
The Pretoria News once published a message calling for benefactors to support raising Mrs. Sithole’s 10 children – Photo: TWITTER
Previously, Pretoria News reported that Ms. Sithole gave birth to 10 children on June 7.
If recognized by Guinness World Records, it would be the world’s first decennial birth. Guinness also said it had received information about the decennial birth and was in the process of verifying it.
The story of the octuplets has captured the attention of South Africans and the world because of its rarity. The Pretoria News even published Sithole’s bank account and her plea for help on its front page.
However, more than a week has passed since the news of the birth of decennials, and the public still has not seen any evidence that the babies were actually born.
Faced with public outrage, local authorities have intervened.
The Gauteng Department of Health said last week that it had no record of 10 births in any public or private hospital in the province. The Gauteng Department of Home Affairs also said it had no record of 10 children born to the same mother in the recent past.
To date, no doctor has come forward to confirm that he “delivered” Sithole’s 10th child.
Pregnant Gosiame Thamara Sithole and her boyfriend – Tebogo Tsotetsi – pose for a photo in Ekurhuleni city, South Africa – Photo: ANA
In a related development, Ms. Sithole’s boyfriend, Mr. Teboho Tsotetsi, said he believed the children were never born. Mr. Tsotetsi also asked donors to stop donating money to Ms. Sithole because he had never met the 10 children.
Mr. Tsotetsi once shared his happy feelings when he learned that he had become the father of 10 children. However, a week later, Mr. Tsotetsi’s family announced that Mr. Tsotetsi had “concluded” that the children mentioned above did not exist.
Mr Tsotetsi said he last saw Ms Sithole on June 7, just before she was taken to a hospital in the South African capital Pretoria in labour. Ms Sithole texted him to inform him that she had given birth to seven boys and three girls.
Mr. Tsotetsi then contacted Ms. Sithole several times to visit her and her children, but she did not inform him of her whereabouts or the condition of her children.
“The family has decided and concluded that there are no decennials born to Mr. Tebogo Tsotetsi and Ms. Gosiame Sithole, until proven otherwise, and apologizes to everyone for the inconvenience and trouble this has caused,” the Tsotetsi family said in a statement.
The Guinness World Record currently belongs to Halima Cisse, a Malian woman, who gave birth to nine children in May.
