[imagesource: YouTube / News24]

It’s been a week since news broke that 37-year-old Gosiame Thamara Sithole gave birth to 10 babies, since dubbed the ‘Tembisa 10’.

During that time, there have been claims and counterclaims regarding the confirmation of the birth, which would set a new Guinness World Record, with journalist Piet Rampedi and Independent Media’s Iqbal Survé playing their cards very close to their chests.

Survé has met with the decuplets’ father, Tebogo Tsotetsi, and claims to have donated R1 million to the family so that they can look after their many bundles of joy.

Tsotetsi has also said that the public will see images of the children when the time is right, as they were born prematurely and are under care, and that is fair.

However, news has since broken that Tsotetsi is in fact not married to Sithole, as was first reported, and his wife is outraged by his behaviour.

Sibongile Gxekwa has three children with Tsotetsi, and says he is not contributing at all financially. Below via News24:

“He has not given me a cent this year. I have been paying for everything myself. I use the children’s grants and money I get from rented rooms that I have. But it is not enough. I have to depend on loan sharks to even afford food.”

…Gxekwa said they started dating when she was 15, and Tsotetsi was 17.

She says that Tsotetsi started seeing Sithole behind her back last year, going out at night and returning in the “wee hours”:

She said she had met Sithole a few times. On one occasion, she came back home early after visiting her sick sister. When she arrived, she found Tsotetsi and Sithole in the house.

“He locked the children and me out of the house and told me that he was with his girlfriend.”

Including the decuplets, Tsotetsi is reported to now have 16 children.

Gxekwa’s pain is obvious to see, with News24 sharing this interview:

Gxekwa is far from the only person left in the dark, and in a follow-up report from this morning, News24 confirmed that a missing person’s case was filed for Sithole at the Tembisa South police station on Thursday.

The Gauteng social development department said that they have since been in contact with Sithole, who is not missing, but wouldn’t disclose her location or condition.

Lumka Oliphant, spokesperson for the national Department of Social Development, said there would be “no interviews until we are ready”. She then referred all queries to the provincial office…

Meanwhile, a reliable source told News24 that the Gauteng government was considering bringing extortion charges against individuals connected to the “Tembisa 10”.

However, spokesperson in the Gauteng premier’s office, Thabo Masebe, said he was not aware that any criminal cases were being prepared.

In short, everything about this story is all over the show.

I can respect the family’s wishes for the mother and children to recover away from prying eyes, but the second the initial story was published by Rampedi, trumpeting a new world record, it was always going to result in a huge amount of interest from around the globe.

Clearly, there are loose threads and half-truths circulating, and some degree of official confirmation could be expected today.

Social development minister Lindiwe Zulu, fresh off being load shed on live TV, said yesterday that she has made an appointment to meet the family today.

Actual, official confirmation would be welcomed.

[sources:news24&news24]