Suspicious: South African Woman's Decuplets

Soon after the news developed, inconsistencies began to occur. On 9 June, two days following the alleged births, the Gauteng government released its official Twitter account. The statement stated that the provincial government conducted a thorough check to verify the claim. However, none of the hospitals in the province, public or private, had a record of decuplet births.

The National Department of Health also maintained that they have no record of delivering decuplets in the province. Spokesperson of the department Popo Maja said, "it cannot be that ten or eight babies are born and that no evidence of their whereabouts or existence can be established," said spokesperson Popo Maja. The statement released can be seen below.

Furthermore, the three hospitals she allegedly implicated in her birth denied the births. Gossamer initially informed her partner that she had given birth at Mediclinic Medforum Hospital. Their spokesperson Tertia Kruger said, "we can confirm that none of our facilities were involved in the obstetric care of this patient or her decuplets.” She later claimed that she gave birth at Louis Pasteur Hospital and transferred them to a third facility, the Steve Biko Hospital, where she searched for them. In a local radio show, Dr. Mathabo Mathebula of Steve Biko Hospital and Michael Sadiki of Louis Pasteur Hospital denied living that the births took place at their facility or any transfers. It would also seem unlikely that ten premature babies born would be transferred from hospital to hospital during a pandemic. 

The following incident that occurred soon after is that on June 11th Gosiama was reported missing by her family after failing to contact her or locate her. However, the Department of Social Development released a statement that she was not missing and asked them for assistance. Gosiame responded with a video where she accused the family of trying to profit off her babies. 

The Misbar team reached out to the family’s spokesperson Russel Baloyi who referred to his June 15th statement, as can be seen below. It stated that the father had not seen the babies, nor does he know their whereabouts. He confirmed that he relied on telephonic and text messages from Gosiame; with the absence of concrete proof, they have concluded that there were no decuplets born until proven otherwise. Then they apologized for the inconvenience and embarrassment.  

Baloyi further confirmed to Misbar the recent reports of a psychiatric evaluation and that Gosiame has been taken in by police in line with the missing person case. She was later handed over to social development, taking her to Tembisa hospital for mental observations. Misbar also contacted the BBC for a comment but did not receive a response.

Important to note that almost two weeks after the birth, not a single photo of the decuplets has been seen until the time of this article. The usual occurrence is that images are taken, as was the case with the recent Guinness World Record holder, claimed by Halima Cisse, who had nine babies. Guinness is aware of the new claim and is still investigating. Although many elements undermine the credibility of the decuplet's story, it is still unfolding and therefore being given a suspicion rating until definitive evidence is available.