The world-record 10 babies reportedly born to a Tembisa woman this week have Gauteng health authorities in a spin - and social development minister Lindiwe Zulu has made an appointment to meet the family herself.
Reports of the birth were greeted with joy by neighbours and relatives who dismiss doubts about the existence of the babies, but medical experts found it strange that it had been possible to keep the event secret.
Speaking to the Sunday Times yesterday, Zulu stopped short of confirming the births. "The social worker said there are 10 babies. As far as I know, there are. The children are in hospital and premature."
She said she would see the family tomorrow. "It is a sticky and sensitive situation, but sensational at the same time, with many saying that it is false news, but I am working with the information that I have."
Earlier in the week, Thabo Masebe, spokesperson for the Gauteng premier's office, said the births had not taken place at any hospital in the province.
"We have no record of the 10 babies at any Gauteng hospital. Unless they were born in the air; we checked both private and public hospitals and no-one knows about the case," he said.
"Another question is, where are the obstetricians who delivered the babies and the paediatrician who is looking after them? No-one is coming forward."
Family said the decuplets' mother, Gosiame Thamara Sithole, 37, is still in hospital and that the babies are fighting for their lives.
She used to come to me for food and especially [to satisfy] her cravings. She loved cake and rolls
— Reginah Sekgobela,Tembisa community leader
Teboho Tsotetsi, who says he is the father, told Independent Media the seven boys and three girls were born prematurely on Monday at 29 weeks. Media reported that Tsotetsi is married to another woman, and that tensions between him and Sithole grew when his wife learnt of the pregnancy.
By Friday, various government departments were still unable to verify the births, or identify the hospital where the babies were born.
Yesterday, community leader Reginah Sekgobela, who runs an early childhood facility in Tembisa, said she had given Sithole food parcels during her pregnancy.
"Her story was disheartening, she used to come to me for food and especially [to satisfy] her cravings. She loved cake and rolls. She came to this area from [Tsotetsi's] home when his wife returned.
"Her mother-in-law took her in. I don't know much about their relationship but I don't think things were smooth," Sekgobela said. She said Sithole was referred to her by community members.
"She was going through a lot with the pregnancy; when she first came here she couldn't walk. Whenever she came from the clinic she visited me. Even when she was going to the hospital she sent someone to tell me."
Sithole's neighbours this week said they had followed her pregnancy over the months and that when she was heavily pregnant, she could barely walk more than a few metres at a time.
Rachel Ndlovu, who lives opposite the family, said: "She told us they were eight babies, and now they are 10, we are beyond shocked. She already has a set of twins and triplets. We used to see her struggling to walk, she had a heavy pregnancy."
Lucas Shaku, who runs a kota joint and a car wash, said the births were "the best news".
"I saw her once and she was using crutches to walk. We are happy for her because we never thought things like these happen. We all felt sorry for her during her pregnancy."
A family member who asked not to be named said on Wednesday the new-borns were fighting for their lives in hospital.
"The babies were born and are still in incubators. They came at 29 weeks; the mother is still weak."
Obstetrician Dr Moeng Pitsoe, who led the team that delivered quintuplets at the Clinix Botshelong Empilweni private hospital in Vosloorus in 2018, said he found it difficult to believe a pregnancy involving decuplets would not be picked up by the authorities at an early stage, and could happen without easily accessible public records.
"This case is unprecedented. The size of the mother's stomach alone should have triggered alarms all over. And yet nobody seems to know anything about it," he said.
"I have not come across one specialist who knows anything about the case and I am even getting calls from the US about it," Pitsoe said.
He said preparing for a decuplet birth would mean close monitoring of the mother during the late stages of the pregnancy.
"The weight she would be carrying is immense. She would not be able to breathe easily, she would not be able to walk or sleep.
"Before the birth you would have to prepare 10 ventilators and call on every neonate specialist around to help you with the delivery, in a hospital able to deal with everything - because anywhere else would certainly mean death for some of the babies and probably the mother."
He said medical care of the mother would be complex because she would be a high-risk patient, likely to bleed out. Anaesthetics would have to be administered by a specialist familiar with the challenges involved.
Dr Skye de Jongh, a gynaecologist and reproductive medical assistant at Vitalab in Sandton, said multiple pregnancies were rare, high-risk and required special care.
The chances of conceiving twins naturally were one in 60, for triplets one in 10,000 and for quadruplets one in 700,000, she said.
"More than that is so rare that there are no numbers," she said.
De Jongh, who has no information other than what she has seen in the news media, said reports that five of the babies were born naturally and that the rest were delivered by Caesarean section would indicate the mother had gone into spontaneous labour.
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