HER STOMACH WAS ENORMOUS!

Locals tell YOU of the bizarre behaviour exhibited by the ‘mother’ of the missing decuplets in Thembisa

- ZANELE RADEBE & JANA VAN DER MERWE

THE house on Difateng Street, Thembisa, looks similar to others in the area – walls painted a light orange, two windows and a door facing the street, a small yard behind a wall with a brown gate.

Until recently, no one would pay it much attention – it was just another house on a typical street in this East Rand township.

These days, however, everyone around here can point it out, including a group of young boys playing soccer in the street. The lady who had the 10 babies lives there, they say. But no one answers the door, no one twitches curtains inside. The place looks deserted.

Yet it was here where photographs were taken of Gosiame Thamara Sithole (37) when she was allegedly heavily pregnant with decuplets.

She smiles at the camera, leaning on a crutch, her pink dress stretched over her enormous stomach.

Soon afterwards, she apparently gave birth to seven boys and three girls – five babies naturally, five via C-section. When the Pretoria News broke the story, it made world headlines. A South African woman had broken the record for having the most babies ever and for a few brief shining moments, the country dared to hope it could be true.

After all, in May, Halima Cisse of Mali gave birth to nine babies in a Morocco hospital – in this day and age anything is possible, right? This could be the good news story we all needed.

Except it could not be proven and as the days passed, the story became more and more bizarre. Eventually even the family of Teboho Tsotetsi, the babies’ father, came forward to say that, until evidence emerged to suggest otherwise, “it’s in the interest of everyone to conclude [the babies] don’t exist”.