A woman who claimed to have busted a world record by delivering 10 babies in a single birth has been outed as a fantasist - with no evidence supporting the super human feat.
Gosiame Sithole claimed she bore the decuplets on June 7, 2021 at Steve Biko Hospital in Pretoria, South Africa.
She also alleged that she had been banned from seeing her new children, kept against her will for a psychiatric evaluation, and that her privacy had been violated by hospital officials, social workers and police.
In response to a complaint made by the alleged father Tebogo Tsotetsi, a public prosecutor has found the claims were complete nonsense and fabricated.
After the news broke, the children became known in South Africa as the "Thembisa 10".
Tsotetsi claimed his partners medical documents were shared without her knowledge or approval to media outlets.
He also claimed cops had detained her unlawfully, taken her for an involuntary mental health check and that her two elder twin children were removed from her care agaisnt her will, Times Live reports.
To compile her 57-page report, prosecutor Kholeka Gcaleka interviewed people said to have been involved, including at the hospital where the kids were supposedly delivered.
The report read: "The allegation that Ms Sithole gave birth to decuplets on June 7 2021 at Steve Biko Hospital and that she was refused access to her babies is unsubstantiated."
But the evidence went as far as to suggest Ms Sithole hadn't even been inside the hospitals and that she "was not pregnant in recent times".
Claims of her being sectioned for mental health care were true, the report confessed, adding that medical practicioners said it was warranted due to her ailing psychiatric state.
The report adds that the removal of her twins was also warranted.
Gcaleka said it was in fact Sithole who contacted social workers about her twins, saying she was concerned about their wellbeing after her long stay at the hospital.
It was three months until Sithole was reunited again with her twins.
Tsotetsi had cited privacy issues over the region's health department's decision to address reporters about Sithole's fabrication.
The hospital interacted with the media in the hopes of refuting her unsubstantiated claims, she said.
So many babies in a single birth would have made Sithole a record-breaker, a title which is currently held by a Moroccan woman who gave birth to nine children in Mali.
Halima Cissé, now 27, was told about the enormous brood just moments before surgery. She beat the previous record set by "Octomum" Nadya Suleman in 2009.
After their delivery, Malian authorities said 30-weeks pregnant mum Halima has successfully delivered five girls and four boys by C-Section surgery.
