Woman In South Africa Who Reportedly Gave Birth To 10 Babies Was Never Pregnant At All

Photo: Gosiame Thamara Sithole and Tebogo Tsotetsi; Thobile Mathonsi/African News Agency (ANA)

An official enquiry has found that a news story that claimed a South African woman gave birth to 10 babies was untrue. It has been said instead that the story, which went viral online, was created by Gosiame Sithole who was suffering from mental health problems.

It was said that Sithole, who is 37, created the story for attention and that she was not even been pregnant. The woman is now being held by mental health services and will be provided with support.

The story was first reported by Independent Online (IOL), a South African based news company, who stated that she gave birth to the children at Steve Biko Academic Hospital (SBAH) in the South African capital, Pretoria. The hospital has said there was no evidence of the birth taking place there at all.

Staff at the hospital were left furious after miss Sithole said she delivered the babies there, but that the staff were unprepared.

The medical agency released a statement saying:

"These allegations are false, unsubstantiated and only serve to tarnish the good reputation of Steve Biko Academic Hospital and the Gauteng Provincial Government."

The medical team at the hospital also said that they would seek to sue for damages against IOL for reporting the false news story.

It is said that a connection through a church put IOL in touch with Ms Sithole and that an interview was carried out for IOL soon after. A photo showed Ms Sithole looking heavily pregnant.

The mayor then announced the births, upon which international news outlets picked up on the story.

Huge donations were even gathered for the couple online, from well-wishers across the world, including IOL itself who gave the couple 1m rand ($70,000; £50,000).

Suspicion started to manifest as no sign of the babies emerged after a number of days.

IOL has now apologised for running the story and the damage it did to news standards. However, some have questioned how IOL could have ever verified such a story before the birth.

{h/t: BBC]