Popping the decuplet bubble: a timeline of how a good news story turned bad
7 JUNE 2021
The decuplets are born! Piet Rampedi’s first article on the babies is published in the Pretoria
News the following day, announcing that Gosiame Sithole gave birth to the 10 “at a hospital in
Pretoria last night”.
8 JUNE 2021
Rampedi’s inaugural article on the subject appears. It specifies that Sithole was not on fertility treatment and that two of her children went undetected because they were
“in the wrong tube”. It also states that her pregnancy was difficult, as Sithole experienced “heartburn”. These details raise eyebrows, but the nation rejoices. Decuplets!! Just what we need!
9 JUNE 2021
Rampedi’s second article on the subject leads with the couple’s bank account details, explaining that they need financial help.
There is still zero information on the medical team that conducted the record-breaking birth. By now the story is flying around the world. But the first major buzzkills emerge in the form of government spokespeople Phumla Williams and Thabo Masebe, both of whom say that no public or private health facility in Gauteng hosted the births. Rampedi’s supporters suggest it is typical of government incompetence that it cannot find 10 identical newborns.
10 JUNE 2021
Some unpleasant questions are starting to be asked as father Teboho Tsotetsi returns to Tembisa from a Cape Town meeting with Independent Media boss Iqbal Survé, with Survé pledging a R1-million donation to the decuplets. As captured in a truly revolting video, Survé asks Tsotetsi what the secret of his magic sperm is. Tsotetsi also announces that five of the babies were born naturally and five by C-Section, prompting the response of “WTF?” from obstetricians/gynaecologists around the country. Sithole’s family, meanwhile, tell TimesLive that the babies are “fighting for their lives”, and that their mother cannot take photos of them because cellphones are not allowed in neonatal ICU.
11 JUNE 2021
With Rampedi apparently one of the only people on Earth who know where Sithole is, a missing person’s case is allegedly opened at the Tembisa police station. But the Gauteng Department of Social Development quickly issues a statement clarifying that the mother is not missing. The decuplets, however, are still AWOL. Rampedi posts on Twitter that Sithole “has been enjoying fresh air”, which seems a bit odd for a woman who gave birth to 10 live humans just days before.
13 JUNE 2021
Daily Maverick publishes a cartoon by Zapiro referring to the decuplets as “Piet Rampedi’s maybe babies”, with an image of Survé as the doctor assisting Rampedi to give birth. Rampedi retweets it with the cryptic warning: “It will end in tears.” But tears for whom? Still no decuplets.
14 JUNE 2021
Father Teboho Tsotetsi urges the public to stop donating money until Sithole returns home with the babies. In a long and confusing article by Rampedi, it now appears that neither Rampedi nor the father have any proof that the babies exist, and also that Rampedi has based an extraordinary amount of his reporting on WhatsApp messages between the mother and father. The nation’s hopes for the decuplets are now low.
15 JUNE 2021
A terrible blow, as the Tsotetsi family release a statement “on the non-existence of the Tembisa decuplets”. They have decided to conclude that the babies “do not exist”. On Twitter, Rampedi announces that the tale “has shifted from a feel-good story into a full investigation”. Questions he is now considering include: “What transpired during & after delivery?” People suggest that perhaps these are the questions he should have answered in his initial reporting, as they constitute pretty much the bare minimum of journalism. Rampedi also releases a video of a now un-pregnant Sithole insisting that she gave birth to 10 babies at Steve Biko Academic Hospital, despite the hospital’s denials and the South African National Editors’ Forum calls the entire saga “one of the lowest points in the history of South African journalism”.
16 JUNE 2021
With only the merest hint of desperation, Rampedi tweets that he and Independent Media have “never ” lied to the South African public. What they are dealing with here, he says, is “unprecedented stuff”. Number of decuplets: still 0.
17 JUNE 2021
The Pretoria News manages to eke another front-page lead out of the story, with this one establishing firmly that they are now reporting from the Twilight Zone. “State ‘Cover Up’ of Decuplets” reads the headline, alleging that authorities have orchestrated the disappearance of the babies in order to discredit Rampedi and Survé. Still no decuplets.
18 JUNE 2021
EWN reports that a medical examination of the “mother” reveals that she has not been pregnant recently, has not given birth and has no C-section scars. Undeterred, IOL reports that a picket will be held in support of her. Zero decuplets available.