Gosiame Thamara Sithole| South African woman’s story claiming she gave birth to 10 babies fake; she’s admitted to psychiatric ward

A South African woman’s story claiming that she gave birth to 10 babies earlier this month has been found out to be fake, according to an official enquiry. She has been admitted to a psychiatric ward for creating the fake story and is under observation.

Gosiame Thamara Sithole, 37, from Gauteng province near Johannesburg, had created a buzz around the world for the alleged record-breaking birth of decuplets.

No hospitals in the Gauteng province have a record of decuplets being born, the provincial government said, BBC reported.

In fact, medical tests show that Sithole was not even pregnant recently, the official enquiry found out. She is being held under the mental health act for observation.

The official enquiry did not state the reason behind the invention of the story.

The world record claim was initially reported by Independent Online (IOL) on June 8, after which it was reported by several media houses around the world.

As the story went viral on social media, donations began flooding in for Sithole, her partner Teboho Tsotetsi and their reported babies.

Soon, there were doubts regarding the authenticity of the birth of 10 babies in the same pregnancy. While authorities could not find any evidence of the births, there were no pictures or videos of the newborn babies in public.

Days later, Tsotetsi reported Sithole missing and asked people to stop donations.

Social workers managed to trace Sithole’s whereabouts after which she was admitted to the hospital for examination on Friday, the Gauteng provincial authorities said.

In May, a Mali woman who was expecting seven babies gave birth to nine in Morocco. Halima Cisse gave birth to five girls and four boys by Caesarean section.