Johannesburg – There is something eerily odious about the raging skirmishes over the alleged existence of the “Thembisa 10” babies, who were reportedly born over a week ago in a Pretoria hospital.
What was supposed to be a moment of great excitement and celebration has now turned us – as a nation – into a bunch of buffoons who are continuously engaged in squabbles over the simple matter of whether the decuplets exist.
As a newspaper have until now deliberately avoided to entangle ourselves in this affair, which has increasingly been turning into a messy affair each time as attempts are made to convince South Africans, and the world, that the decuplets exist.
As responsible members of the media, we have never witnessed anything like this before. Without any shred of evidence, our focus has been diverted to the alleged existence of the decuplets when we should have instead been channelling our collective efforts at fighting and avoiding the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
South Africans have been distracted from paying attention to important dates on our national calendar, such as the heroic struggles and triumphs of the youth of June 16 1976 in recent days.
Our minds have instead been focused on what has increasingly become an absurdity, which we should have by now merely laughed off and forgotten about.
Not even the passing of one of Africa’s liberation fighters, Kenneth Kaunda, was properly observed by South Africans – who owe so much to his contributions and efforts for the democracy we enjoy today.
Instead, our national discourse was firmly placed on this sensation-fuelled gibberish.
All the hospitals alleged to have delivered the babies have firmly, and in no uncertain term, denied knowledge of the children.
They include the Steve Biko Academic Hospital and the Tshwane District Hospital.
It is our understanding that official resources, including the police and the intelligence services, have also been roped in to search for the babies, but they, too, came up empty handed.
Health Ombudsman Professor Malegapuru Makgoba appeared to also dismiss this sorry episode yesterday, as he told this publication that he was even not sure what the basis of a complaint would be if he was asked to investigate the whereabouts of the babies.
It becomes a serious abdication of our key responsibility to report news truthfully, fairly and without any other motives when we, and without any shred of evidence, resort to unsubstantiated and wild claims of elaborate cover-ups by the state when we fail to prove our own stories.
Journalistic standards demand that we all be humble and mature enough to admit our errors, apologise and correct our mistakes.
That is not a shame, but rather a demonstration of total commitment to true media freedom.
It is an obligation to readers’ trust in the media as watchdogs against the abuse of power.
The Thembisa 10 saga has reached a stage in which it is seriously threatening the credibility of the media as a whole.
This whole spectacle has to stop now as it has been in town for too long.
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