A South African woman made up a story about being pregnant and giving birth to 10 children, according to police.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, the hospital that Gosiame Sithole, 37, claimed to have given birth at says that they never treated her. Later, Tsotesti’s family reported Sithole missing after no one heard from her for days after she supposedly gave birth to seven boys and three girls.
DailyMail reports that police found Sithole at a relative’s house and took her to social workers for an interview earlier this month. The social workers ultimately checked her into the Tembisa Hospital’s psychiatric ward for a mental health evaluation.
BBC News reports that following an inquiry, authorities determined that Sithole had “not even been pregnant recently.”
Although it’s unclear why Sithole, who has 6-year-old twins, decided to make up the phony story, she and her husband, Tebogo Tsotetsi, had been receiving money from a GoFundMe account while Sithole claimed she was pregnant with 10 babies.
South African woman Thamara Sithole lied about having 10 babies: Report https://t.co/uY6wHieNHU
— P.M. NEWS (@pmnewsnigeria) June 24, 2021
On June 14, Tsotetsi asked the public to stop making donations after he still hadn’t seen the babies.
“I appreciate the financial support that we have been getting from members of the public, but I also would like to appeal to the public to stop making money deposits into our accounts until members of the community have seen the babies,” Tsotetsi said in a WhatsApp message, according to IOL News.
“I confirm that since she informed me that she delivered 10 babies at the Medforum Hospital, I made several attempts to pay them a visit at the hospital to no avail. I reiterate that she told me that no visitors are allowed.”
Officials said no hospitals in the area had any record of Sithole delivering babies recently.
“It has now been established by medical practitioners that Ms Sithole did not give birth to any babies in recent times,” Gauteng Provincial Government said in a statement. “It has also been established that she was not pregnant in recent times.”
So far, Sithole has not faced criminal charges. She currently remains under psychiatric care.
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[Feature Photo: Gosiame Sithole/Handout]
