Tebogo Tsotetsi was the proud father of tenlings for a good week, at least that was what the man from the South African town of Thembisa had said, possibly he had believed it himself.

The spectacular news had caused a great stir, commented on and passed on millions of times.

Congratulations and donations poured in from everywhere.

It would have been a record just weeks after a Malian mother gave birth to nine babies in a hospital in Morocco.

Claudia Bröll

Freelance Africa correspondent based in Cape Town.

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    But now the story of the tenfold blessing of children has fizzled out as quickly as it emerged.

    Tsotetsi's family admitted on Tuesday evening that they had never seen the babies.

    She therefore assumes that they do not even exist, at least as long as the opposite is not proven.

    The father relied on his girlfriend, who informed him about the birth by phone.

    He made several attempts to visit her, but she did not reveal her whereabouts.

    Apart from their own statements on the phone, there is no evidence of the existence of the decrees.

    The birth was announced by the Pretoria News newspaper, along with videos and photos taken during the pregnancy.

    Despite intensive research, however, neither journalists nor authorities were able to find "Thembisa 10", as they were called after the parents' place of residence.

    No private or government hospitals had reported a decent birth.

    Experts also pointed out that such a birth would have been a complex and risky medical procedure and the newborns likely would have had to go to intensive care units.

    Generous donations to the family

    Even so, the newspaper stuck to its message. She published a call for donations with private bank details. Later the news site IOL, which belongs to the same media group, followed up with a video of the father. The supervisory board chairman of the group, Iqbal Survé, announced that he would donate one million rand (around 60,000 euros) to the family. Before that, the businessman, who is himself a doctor, had criticized those who doubted the report: Don't treat your media to sensational news.

    It is still unclear where the supposed mother, Gosiame Sithole, is. The head of a teaching hospital at the University of Pretoria told a radio station that the guards there picked up a woman who called herself Gosiame Sithole. She said she had given birth to ten babies in a private clinic in Pretoria. She was told there that the newborns would be taken to the university hospital, where she should wait for them. A spokesman for the private clinic, however, could not find a patient with this name in the documents, and there was never a decent birth in the clinic. "We will now turn our attention to finding Gosiame Sithole and pray that she will return safely," said Tsotetsi's family.She apologized for "any inconvenience and embarrassment" and asked not to transfer any more money to any bank accounts.