The Tembisa 10’s Gosiame Sithole. Image: IOL/Twitter
Tembisa 10 story’s international award nomination WITHDRAWN
SANEF was outraged after the docuseries on the infamous Tembisa 10 story was nominated for a prestigious award
The Tembisa 10’s Gosiame Sithole. Image: IOL/Twitter
Independent Media’s eight-part video series titled Baby Trade – Tracking the Truth, has been removed as a finalist for a prestigious and globally-recognised award. Much to the dismay of the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF), the infamous Tembisa 10 story was nominated under the category, “Best Use of Social Media” in the International News Media Awards (INMA).
Here’s a reminder of what got us here: In June 2021, Pretoria News editor Piet Rampedi broke the story of how the Tembisa 10 were born at an undisclosed Pretoria hospital. He had done an interview with Gosiame Sithole and the father of the decuplets, Tebogo Tsotetsi. But Gauteng authorities said they were unable to verify the births, prompting questions as to whether they even exist. The provincial government subsequently revealed that it had no records of Sithole giving birth at any private or public hospital – and Tsotetsi himself has admitted that he has never even seen the decuplets.
SANEF SLAMMED FOR BEING ‘VINDICTIVE’
SANEF had written to the organisers of the awards, calling on them to withdraw the nomination for the Tembisa 10 story. Now the INMA’s CEO Earl J Wilkinson has released a statement, saying the entry has been removed.
Wilkinson said some concerns were raised about the Tembisa 10 story’s nomination, since the news was made public.
Rampedi has labelled SANEF’s bid to have the story removed as a finalist, as “vindictive and desperate.”
Baby Trade – Tracking the Truth, theorises that the decuplets were actually trafficked – and that government officials were in on it. Independent Media has slammed SANEF for dismissing the story, saying it is not being objective and not interrogating its claims.
“What SANEF does not say or comment on (because they never actually watched the series or objectively dealt with the content) is that the series carries several other voices of experts, investigators, other role players, documentary and circumstantial evidence all of which is provided to audiences so that they can make up their own minds,” the publication said.
