Online Reporter
H-Metro Reporter
THE man who sent the Twins Association of Zimbabwe leaders in a wild goose chase to Karanda Mission on Monday to ‘celebrate’ the birth of his quintuplets isn’t the first person to sell a dummy to an entire nation with such sensational claims.
The man, who identified himself as Valetta Nyamupfukudza, called the TAZ leaders seeking assistance after claiming that his ‘wife’ Magret Rachel Kachave, 33, gave birth to five children at once last week.
He claimed he was employed at the Harare City Council.
However, when the TAZ leaders − Farai Lawyer Katonha and Tendai Mayor Katonha – arrived at Karanda Mission they were told that no one had delivered quintuplets at the hospital.
To make matters worse, the man who sent the SOS and triggered the chain of events which resulted in them making the trip to Karanda Mission, is nowhere to be found.
Valetta, though, isn’t the first person to come up with such an outrageous claim.
Four years ago, South Africa was engrossed by a similar tale when claims were made, and published in the mainstream media, that a woman had given birth to 10 babies at once.
It started when Gosiame Sithole claimed she gave birth to decuplets on June 7, 2021 at Steve Biko Hospital in Pretoria.
That would have been enough for her to earn a place on the Guinness World Records.
However, Sithole’s story was later proved to have been a LIE after an official inquiry.
The hospitals in Gauteng said they had no record of decuplets being born, the provincial government said.
Medical tests also show that Sithole had not even been pregnant in recent months leading to her sensational claims.
She had also not been to Steve Biko Hospital since 2014, when she had given birth to twins.
Sithole claimed the staff at the Steve Biko Hospital were not prepared to deal with such a delivery of 10 babies at once.
However, an official inquiry found out that those “allegations are false, unsubstantiated and only serve to tarnish the good reputation of Steve Biko Academic Hospital and the Gauteng Provincial Government.”
The Katonha twins have been mocked after their trip to Karanda Mission.
Some of those criticising them say they should have known that a woman giving birth to five kids at once was a story too good to be true.
However, this has happened around the world before and on May 4, 2012, Halima Cisse of Mali delivered nine babies at once at the Ain Borja clinic in Casablanca, Morocco.
This is the first known incidence of nonupulets surviving birth.
The record previously belonged to eight babies born in 2009 to Nadya Suleman of the United States.
The Guinness World Records said nonuplets were extremely rare and, until the arrival of the Cisse children, no cases had been recorded of nine babies from a single birth surviving for more than a few hours.
Doctors in Mali initially thought that Halima was carrying seven children and on March 30, 2021, under Government orders, she was flown to a clinic in Casablanca that offered specialist care.
It was there that nine babies were detected.
The clinic’s director, Youssef Alaoui, confirmed that Halima gave birth prematurely on May 4, 2021 − at 30 weeks − via Caesarean section, and that each of the five girls and four boys weighed between 500g and 1kg.
The babies were immediately transferred to incubators and remained in the care of the clinic’s paediatric neonatologist Khalil Msaif for several months following their delivery.
The father, Abdelkader Arby, a sailor in the Malian Navy, remained in Mali to take care of the couple’s older daughter, Souda.
Five months after their birth, the family released photographs showing the proud parents with their nine-strong brood − girls Adama, Oumou, Hawa, Kadidia and Fatouma, and boys Oumar, Elhadji, Bah and Mohammed VI.
