The Daily Voice's sister newspapers and their journalists have been trashed by other media and by the public on social media over the 10 babies story.
This newspaper published the story too.
We may be a regional Kaapse koerant, but when a national story of a mother in Tembisa giving birth to decuplets breaks, you drop what you're doing.
Hell, a world record birth is international news!
Because we don't operate in Gauteng, the Voice relied on its colleagues at the Pretoria News and its editor Piet Rampedi.
Piet broke the story himself. He met the mother Gosiame Sithole and the father Tebogo Tsotetsi at their church last year.
He learnt about the extraordinary pregnancy and checked in on the couple from time to time, taking photos on his visits.
It was a difficult story to do, says Piet, as they are staunch church-going people with all manner of cultural sensibilities.
The fact that the dad reportedly has more than one partner added to the complexity.
Still, it was all set up to be a sensational news story.
Fast forward to the "birth" and Piet broke the story, making national and world headlines.
And an ecstatic dad was photographed accepting a generous donation of R1 million from Dr Iqbal Surve.
Happy ending to a momentous South African story?
Nope, just the beginning of a media circus, shrouded in mystery, intrigue and explosive allegations of fake news and a governmental cover-up.
Piet, the Pretoria News and Independent Media have been hammered on public platforms.
I personally met Piet two months ago in Durban. He's a serious guy, serious journalist. Doesn't strike you as a nutcase or a joker.
The notion that he and his bosses have spun a colourful yarn is just too far-fetched.
Editors don't sit in their news conferences and dream up tales of an elephant giving birth to a giraffe, or a gogo who can outsprint Wayde van Niekerk.
I once worked for an Irish editor who enjoyed working in South African media simply because there's never a dull moment.
"You can't make this sh!t up," he would say on a daily basis.
What journalist would make up a story about 10 babies and expect to get away with it, anyway?
Piet has taken a helluva beating in the media. Shame.
While he continues to stand by his story 100%, he's conceded that he's failed in his journalistic duties.
He hasn't verified his information and he hasn't gathered sufficient evidence to substantiate his claims.
For that, he's apologised to his colleagues, who had placed faith in him as a trained, professional journalist.
It's going to be hard to come back from this. Reputational damage is fatal in this industry.
But while Piet would admit that he deserves all the flak he's received, at some point South Africa needs to move on and get back to the real story.
It's too easy to tweet "fake news". It's laziness shooting the messenger.
So many unanswered questions remain, and journalists need to get off Twitter, go out and investigate what the hell has happened.
The Gauteng government now says it is planning to sue Piet and Independent Media for their "cover-up" allegations.
The state says none of the hospitals in the province - public and private - have any record of the births.
"It has now been established by medical practitioners that Ms Sithole did not give birth to any babies in recent times. It has also been established that she was not pregnant in recent times," said a spokesperson.
Wow.
You know what? Maybe a court case is the best route.
Can you imagine the trial?
There is no evidence of the decuplets being born, but neither is there any evidence that it was indeed fake news.
And where is the star witness - Gosiame Sithole?
The poor woman has been shunted from hospital to hospital.
She was then detained at a police station - against her will - for reasons unclear.
Is she a danger to society? Perhaps a threat to the health department?
Now the Gauteng authorities are claiming she is mentally disturbed and is being kept for "observation".
She has a right to legal representation, yet her lawyer has been trying unsuccessfully to get access to her for over a week.
Her gynaecologist has vanished and doctors who treated her are not available to speak.
Is there indeed a cover-up? Is the government holding her captive?
Will Gosiame ever be released to tell us what happened to her?
And what was in her belly - if not babies?
Forget Piet. This is the story.