The South African woman whose claim to giving birth to ten babies made headlines around the world is now being detained in a psychiatric facility after her claims fell apart.

Gosiame Thamara Sithole’s claim has been denied by the South African health department, the alleged father of the babies as well as Sithole’s father yet her lawyer says she is being held against her will.

Sithole, 37, was taken to Tembisa Hospital in Johannesburg for a psychiatric evaluation just days after her partner Tebogo Tsotetsi said he does not believe the ten children exist. She was first apprehended by police officers at a relative’s house in the northern township of Rabie Ridge near the city of Johannesburg in the early morning of Thursday 17 June, taken to a police station in the nearby suburb of Chloorkop before being handed over to social workers who then admitted her to Tembisa Hospital’s psychiatric ward for a mental health assessment. 

Speculation has grown over Sithole’s claims after the hospital where she claimed she had given birth denied treating her.  

This prompted an investigation by the South African health department which concluded that “Clinicians at both the Steve Biko Academic Hospital and Tshwane District Hospital confirming that there is no record of delivery of the decuplets in any of the public health facilities in Gauteng.” the statement said. “It cannot be that 10 or 8 babies are born and that no evidence of their whereabouts or existence can be established.”

Sithole remained adamant that she would not disclose the location of her children and said ‘no-one is going to force me… I will do it on my own time’. 

The Tsotetsi, the said father of the children has asked the public to stop donating money to the alleged mother. 

Meanwhile, following the provincial government threat of legal action against the reporter who broke the story Piet Rampedi, and his newspaper’s parent company, Independent News, for accusing officials and hospitals of a cover up. Piet Rampedi publicly apologised for not doing a better investigative job before publishing Sithole’s story.