Pretoria - With the whereabouts of the 10 babies, reported to have been given birth to by Moliehi Sithole (also known as Gosiame) on June 7 still a mystery, the father of Sithole’s children, Teboho Tsotetsi, has instituted criminal proceedings at the Pretoria Central police station against various people involved in the debacle.
According to papers seen by Independent Media’s investigations unit, Tsotetsi opened the case on Wednesday last week.
However, when reached, Gauteng police spokesperson Kay Makhubela said he was unable to confirm the opening of the case as he was out in the field responding to looting incidents.
Other officers, however, acknowledged that such a case had been opened but were not in a position to comment.
Stating the sequence of events leading to his latest move, Tsotetsi said he had engaged lawyers’ services to assist him with the release of his wife from hospital, as she had been admitted without her consent.
An urgent application to the South Gauteng High Court was dismissed on Friday. However, the main application is still pending.
The news of the birth of decuplets set off a national reaction in the form of donations from caring and supportive citizens and companies, dubbed a “national baby shower”.
Tsotetsi on June 14 called on members of the public to stop donating money into both their bank accounts until Sithole had returned home.
“I appreciate the financial support that we have been getting from members of the public, but I also would like to appeal to the public to stop making deposits into our accounts until members of the community have seen the babies.”
At the time Sithole’s twins were living at his mother’s home in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni. Tsotetsi said while he was taking care of them, they too missed their mother.
Sithole is being kept at Weskoppies Hospital as an involuntary patient in terms of the Mental Health Act.
Tsotetsi said in his affidavit: “I now have a reasonable suspicion that the government has confined my wife in a mental institution, even though she has never suffered from mental incapacity, to prevent her from speaking out and explaining what has happened to our babies.
“My wife is not mentally insane and her faculties are intact.
“On July 1, I received a phone call from my attorney who informed me that Weskopies declined her application to allow our private psychiatrist to visit my wife at Weskoppies to assess and evaluate her for the purposes of issuing a comprehensive medico-legal report.” Tsotetsi had earlier visited George Mukhari Academic Hospital after having been informed that that was where the decuplets were being kept, but was turned away after the hospital’s officials denied having the babies at the institution.
“Having been refused access … I insisted on seeing the chief executive of the hospital.
“The acting chief executive, Dr Keneilwe Letebele, told me that they did not have decuplets born at her hospital.
“I told her that according to the information I received, the babies were transferred from Steve Biko Hospital to George Mukhari Hospital. Before she could answer me, she received a phone call on her cellphone.
“On completion of her conversation, she told me that she was speaking to the chief executive of Steve Biko Hospital, Dr Mathabo Mathebula, and that Dr Mathebula said she (Dr Letebele) must not speak to me further regarding the babies because this matter was being handled at the Provincial Office of the Department of Social Development; and further that if I needed something which had to do with the babies, I should speak to the HOD of Social Department. I do not know who informed Dr Mathebula that I was at George Mukhari wanting to see my babies at that time,” said Tsotesti in his affidavit.
He said that after trying everything in his power to locate his babies, he was now left with only the option of instituting criminal proceedings, of the theft of his babies immediately after their birth at Steve Biko Hospital on June 7, 2021, between 6pm and midnight, against Steve Biko Hospital as an organisation represented by its chief executive, Mathebula, as well as all the employees who allegedly assisted Sithole during the delivery.
“I need this matter to be investigated by the police for me and my family to have closure. I need to know the whereabouts of my babies.
“I believe all the hospitals have CCTV surveillance cameras and if they can check the cameras from the June 7, 2021, to June 12, 2021, at Steve Biko Hospital, and/or Tshwane District Hospital, the cameras will show her as she got into the hospital and when she left the hospital,” said Tsotetsi.
When contacted for comment, the various hospitals’ officials referred all communications to Kwara Kekana, the spokesperson for the MEC of Health in Gauteng.
Kekana said there would be no comment further than the statement released by the Gauteng government which stated that Sithole was admitted to Tembisa Hospital on June 18, and various medical tests were conducted on her to determine her state of health.
The department said it stood by its statement.
Meanwhile the public will recall that after the news broke that Moliehi Sithole (also known as Gosiame) had given birth to decuplets, a number of people came together in a remarkable way expressing a desire to help the family.
The outpouring of support included pledges of money and cash deposits into bank accounts.
Teboho Tsotetsi, the father of Sithole’s children, said: “In the midst of the celebration of the birth of the decuplets, the government of South Africa announced on various public media platforms that they could not trace any records of my wife’s admission and the birth of the decuplets at any of the hospitals in the country.
“Befuddled by such an announcement, which was made without any consultation with me, I requested the public to stop making further deposits of money into our bank accounts until my wife and the decuplets came home from the hospital.”
He added: “On the advice of a private investigator, I have now instituted criminal proceedings against various persons.
“While this matter is pending before the court and the SAPS are busy with their investigations, I invite everyone who has made cash deposits into our respective bank accounts to immediately request a refund.”
Requests for a refund should be forwarded to his email address, [email protected]
Pretoria News