Sanef welcomes scrapping of Tembisa 10 story from Global Media Awards

The South African National Editors’ Forum has welcomed (SANEF) the removal of the “Baby Trade” also known as the Tembisa 10 story as a shortlisted piece from the International News Media Association (INMA) Global Media Awards.

On Thursday, after widespread criticism, the INMA issued a statement on the Tembisa 10 entry saying certain concerns were brought to its attention regarding a social media campaign promoting a baby trade story in South Africa.

“Given the opportunity to review information from all parties related to the concerns raised, our international judges have reconsidered the entry, and it is no longer a finalist.

The so-called docuseries, first published as a story by Pretoria News last June, was shortlisted in the category of “Best Use of Social Media”.

After much speculation on whether the story was true or not, it was later confirmed by the family and the Gauteng Health Department that the woman by the name of Gosiame Sithole was not pregnant and there were no 10 babies.

However, Pretoria News editor Piet Rampedi stuck to his guns and said he believed that Sithole was pregnant with 10 babies and even went as far as to claim that criticism of his reporting was a personal attack on him.

Sanef said it accepts the statement from the INMA.

“We welcome this removal, and hope INMA will in the future attend better to shortlisted pieces, particularly those that threaten the trust in the media, and aim to work against ethical journalism as they purport disinformation through stories found to be a ‘hoax’ by their own internal ombudsman.”

Meanwhile, Sithole has threatened legal action against Sanef and its Secretary-General Mahlatse Mahlase for the “defamatory” remarks it made about her.

In a statement issued through her lawyer Gardee Godrich Attorneys, the mother of the so-called Tembisa 10 said she and her husband Teboho Tsotets who she officially married in February are deeply shocked at the statement released by Sanef.

“We don’t know this organisation, and they never contacted me and my husband.”

In the statement, Sithole also contradicts herself about her pregnancy.

“Mrs Mahlatse Mahlase, who made the statement that the doctors had examined and found me not to have been pregnant. This was not true. No one examined me when I was in the hospital. I have proof of my pregnancy, confirmed by the doctors who examined me, and I gave my information to a lot of journalists and investigators.”

Sithole has demanded that Mahlase and Sanef apologise to he and her husband immediately for their ‘false and defamatory statements.’

“I am giving them until the end of business on Monday, 11 April 2022 to issue an unconditional apology to us. If they don’t apologise, as poor as I am, I will instruct my lawyers, Gardee Godrich Attorneys to pursue the matter further. Mahlase and SANE are abusing and taking advantage of me because I am a poor black woman, and have no means to fight them. They are treating me like I am a piece of dirt.”

Sithole claims she and her husband Teboho are looking for the decuplets.

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