South African woman who claimed to have birthed 10 babies was lying

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Her maternity pants are on fire.

The woman accused of lying about birthing the world’s first decuplets was indeed lying.

Gosiame Sithole claimed earlier this month that she had given birth to 10 babies – which would have been a world record – but in a bizarre series of events, she went into hiding after she supposedly delivered the babies and was keeping their whereabouts a secret.

The Gauteng Provincial Government said Wednesday it had “conducted a thorough check with all hospitals” in the area to “establish the veracity” of Sithole’s decuplets claim and found no trace of the newborns, nor did they find evidence that babies were even born.

“None of the hospitals in the province, public and private, had any records of such births at their facilities,” the local government said.

Officials added that when they finally found Sithole, she was taken in for a 72-hour psychiatric evaluation, which was then extended by an additional seven days.

“It has now been established by medical practitioners that Ms. Sithole did not give birth to any babies in recent times,” the statement revealed.

“It has also been established that she was not pregnant in recent times.”

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The government is also “deeply concerned” by the conduct of the newspaper that first broke the story and are instructing the State Attorney to “institute legal action” against editor Piet Rampedi and the Pretoria News.

The paper reports that Sithole gave birth to the babies at Steve Biko Academic Hospital, but alleged that the government was trying to cover up medical negligence.

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

Rampedi has since written a letter to his boss and staff, as seen by News24, apologizing for the “reputational damage the aftermath of the story has caused for the group, the company and my colleagues in general.”

He also admitted that he could’ve verified some of the facts around Sithole’s story but added he had no reason to doubt them.

“They had no reason to lie to me about the pregnancy,” the email continued.

“For me, it was a story of celebration. There was nothing to investigate, I thought.”

Rampedi added how wrong based on the outcome and the government’s reaction. “I was wrong. It was not necessarily a feel-good story. It was an investigative story and ought to have been treated as such.”