Journalist Piet Rampedi’s June 2021 story about a Tembisa mother giving birth to decuplets in a world first not only put Independent Media’s reputation at risk but also 'seriously compromised’ trust in SA media.

According to the Daily Maverick this was the finding of the media group’s own internal regulator in a report dated 5 July 2021.

Independent Media’s Group Ombud also recommended that: ‘The Pretoria News, IoL and the other titles in the group that had picked up the syndicated story of the decuplets publish a full apology to all readers with an accompanying explanation of how a hoax story ended up being published.’

This, notes the DM, is in stark contrast to the feedback provided to the public by Independent Media owner Iqbal Survé last week.

Survé insisted the mother at the centre of the story, Gosiame Sithole, had indeed been pregnant with 10 babies. He alleged that eight were born alive and had since disappeared, caught up in what he claimed was a baby trafficking syndicate operating ‘daily’ out of Gauteng hospitals.

The four panel members who considered the matter on behalf of Independent’s Group Ombud came to very different conclusions.

Moegsien Williams, Zama Mkhize, Yogin Devan and Verlie Oosthuizen were tasked with assessing complaints laid about the decuplets story by veteran journalist Zubeida Jaffer, former Independent group editor Ryland Fisher and Dr Alex de la Rouviere.

Jaffer – supported by Fisher – said that ‘as a subscriber to the Cape Times she had expected an apology to be published about the unsubstantiated decuplets story’.

As a professional journalist, Jaffer said she was concerned that the matter had ‘damaged the reputation of Independent News Media and the profession of journalism’.

The findings of the four panellists were unanimously scathing. 

Panel member Williams, a former Independent editor, questioned: ‘Why was the main headline on a world exclusive story about a mother giving birth to decuplets angled on an appeal for donations?’

It was a view supported by Verlie Oosthuizen.

Williams continued: ‘Why would a ‘feel-good story’ of about 20 paragraphs contain 13 references to appeals for donations in cash and kind, as well as two graphics containing bank account numbers of Sithole and (the decuplets’ alleged father) Tsoetsi and drop-off details for donations?’

He recommended that all titles in the Independent group ‘publish a fulsome apology to all readers with an accompanying explanation of how a hoax story ended up being published’.

The DM report says Devan dismissed Rampedi’s claims that his failure to carry out a more full investigation was because he did not want to invade the mother’s privacy, and that those calling for more details were insensitive to the mother’s race, culture and class.

‘The mother posed happily for a photograph with a bulging belly,’ Devan wrote. ‘Would her privacy have been invaded if she was photographed with her 10 babies?’

The conclusion to the Group Ombud’s report states that the entire decuplets saga ‘has brought (Rampedi), a 123-year-old title (Pretoria News), the entire Independent group and South African journalism in general into disrepute’.

The report also concludes that a ‘clear, prominent and unequivocal apology to readers’ be printed by the Independent group and IoL, together with ‘a full explanation of how and why the hoax was published’ and ‘a published accounting of exactly what happened to the donations, including funds, goods or any other form of goodwill’.

The DM adds it has seen a copy of the report and independently confirmed its veracity.

Full Daily Maverick report

The doctor who claimed to have examined Sithole is neither a gynaecologist nor an obstetrician.

This is according to a report in The Citizen. Dr Mpho Pooe, who claimed to have examined Sithole, was introduced by Survé as a gynaecologist and obstetrician. However, the Colleges of Medicine of SA has suggested otherwise.

‘Records confirm that Dr Mpho Pooe has not qualified as a gynaecologist and obstetrician, as per CMSA requirements,’ clinicians at the Steve Biko Academic and Tembisa hospitals said in a statement.

The validity of the statement was confirmed by Gauteng Health spokesperson Kwara Kekana.

Meanwhile, the Health Professionals Council (HPCSA) has since launched an investigation into Pooe for ‘misrepresenting her qualifications’.

‘Dr Pooe is in general practice …. Dr Pooe is not on the HPCSA register as a trained obstetrician and gynaecologist,’ said HPCSA spokesperson, Christopher Tsatsawane.

Full report in The Citizen