A woman believed to be the world’s oldest person has died in South Africa at the age of 128 after living three different centuries.
Johanna Mazibuko, a mother of seven, died March 3 at her home in Jouberton, North West Province, and would have turned 129 in May, local reports said.
Her next of kin said she had identity documents showing she was born on May 11, 1894, and grew up on a corn farm. She never went to school and could not read or write, they said.
Speaking to News24, her caretaker and daughter-in-law Thandiwe Wesinyana said Mazibuko may have died of a stroke.
Mazibuko told the publication on her 128th birthday, “I’m amazed why I’m still here after so many years. Why am I still here? People around me have died.
Mother-of-seven Johanna Mazibuko (pictured), died March 3 at her home in Jouberton, North West Province, and would have turned 129 in May, local reports said
‘When am I going to die? What’s the point of living? The world has tired me out just sitting here and doing nothing,” she said.
Mazibuko will be buried on Saturday in Jouberton, Klerksdorp
She was one of 12 siblings of which three are still living.
Illiterate, she told News24: ‘We lived so well on the farms. There were no problems then. I don’t remember my childhood very well, but I do remember a plague of locusts.
“There were some we could catch and eat. It was like eating meat. We would just bake them and eat them alone.
‘I grew up healthy with mainly fresh milk and wild spinach. Now I eat modern food. I’m used to it, but I miss the food I grew up with.”
She married an elderly widower Stawana Mazibuko, but cannot remember when. She said his first wife had died and he owned cows and she would make butter.
Johanna said: ‘He made sure I lacked nothing’.
They had 7 children, two of whom are still living, and have more than 50 grandchildren and great-grandchildren and are mourned in South Africa.
Mazibuko survived both world wars and two global pandemics (Covid-19 and the Spanish flu). She lived during the reign of Queen Victoria in Great Britain, the first flight of the Wright brothers and the first Russian revolution.
Caregiver Thandiwe said she took her to hospital on February 14 and was treated for a stroke and was discharged on February 28.
She died at home three days later and will be buried in Jouberton on Saturday.
Mazibuko (pictured) told the publication on her 128th birthday, “I’m amazed why I’m still here after so many years. Why am I still here? People around me have died’
Her next of kin said she had identity documents showing she was born on May 11, 1894, and grew up on a corn farm. She never went to school and could not read or write, they said
Thandiwe told News24: ‘We loved to pray together and spent most of our days drinking tea and talking. I don’t know who I’m going to have fun with anymore.
“A wound has opened, my heart aches and I am broken. The community is sad. We’ve all lost a mother,” she said.
Officially, the world’s oldest person is a San Francisco-born woman aged 115. She was given the title after the death of French nun Sister André, 118, earlier in 2023.
At the time of her birth Maria Branyas Morera – confirmed by Guinness World Records as the oldest person – suffered a second wave of the bubonic plague. She is now considered a “supercentenarian” – a title given to people once they pass the age of 110.
Morera, who has three children, 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren, attributes her advanced age to “order, tranquility” and “staying away from toxic people.”
And despite her age, she is active on social media and regularly posts on Twitter with the help of her daughter. She is also an avid pianist.
Both Morera and Sister André survived an attack of Covid-19, making them the two oldest known people to have survived the deadly virus.
In 2021, an Eritrean man who died in September of that year was claimed to have been 127. Natabay Tinsiew’s family claimed local records showed he was born in 1894, saying he was present when his village celebrated its 120th birthday in 2014.
The oldest living person verified by Guinness was Frenchwoman Jeanne Louise Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122 and 164 days.
Most centenarians (someone who has reached the age of 100) are in the so-called blue zones of the world, where people live longer than average, such as Okinawa in Japan or on the Italian island of Sardinia.
Born in San-Francisco, Maria Branyas officially became the world’s oldest person earlier this year, aged 115, following the death of a French nun named Sister André
Marero became the world’s oldest living person following the death of French nun Sister André (pictured) earlier this month. Both survived a Covid-19 attack
In 2021, an Eritrean man who died in September of that year was claimed to be 127. Natabay Tinsiew’s family (pictured) claimed that local records showed he was born in 1894.
But France, while not considered a blue zone, still has 30,000 centenarians, according to statistics agency Insee, about 40 of whom are 110 or older.
Last year, Brazilian officials claimed to have found a 121-year-old woman living in a small town in Bahia state.
The woman, named Maria Gomes dos Reis, could have been born on June 16, 1900, making her by far the world’s oldest person.
However, this has not yet been confirmed by as her family has to pay 4,000 Brazilian reais, about £640, and provide legal documents proving her age to Guinness World Records.
WORLD EVENTS SHE HAD
Johanna Mazibuko, a mother of seven, died March 3 at her home in Jouberton, North West Province, and would have been 129 in May, reports say.
People close to her claimed that she had ID documents proving she was born on May 11, 1894. From the Wright brothers’ first flight, World Wars I and II, the fall of the Berlin Wall to 9/11, the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mazibuko has lived through it all.
1894: ID documents show that Johanna Mazibuko was born in South Africa
1897: Greco-Turkish War
1901: Formation of the Commonwealth of Australia, Queen Victoria dies
1903: Wright Brothers make first flight, Suffragettes in Great Britain and Northern Ireland
The Wright brothers make their first flight in December 1903
1905: First Russian Revolution
1914: World War I begins
1917: Russian Revolution leads to Communism
1918: World War I ends, Spanish flu pandemic kills millions
1921: Chinese communists revolt
1924: Russia goes from Lenin to Stalin
1927: Lindbergh non-stop flight to Paris
1934: Hitler consolidates power in Germany
1939: Beginning of World War II
1941: The Holocaust begins
Troops of the 48th Royal Marines at Saint-Aubin-sur-mer on Juno Beach, Normandy, France, during the D-Day landings, 6 June 1944
[1945:EindevandeTweedeWereldoorlogendeHolocausteerstenucleaireontploffing
1947: India wordt onafhankelijk
1948: geboorte van Israël
1949: NAVO opgericht
1950: Koreaanse oorlog begint
1952: Elizabeth II gekroond in Groot-Brittannië, eerste waterstofbomtest
1953: De ontdekking van DNA
1955: Rosa Parks stimuleert burgerrechtenbeweging, oorlog in Vietnam begint
1958: VS lanceert eerste satelliet
1959: Castro neemt Cuba over
1961: Berlijnse muur gebouwd
1962: Cubaanse rakettencrisis
1963: JFK vermoord in Texas
1966: Mao zuivert rivalen
1967: Zesdaagse Oorlog
1968: Martin Luther King vermoord
1969: Maanlanding
De maanlanding in 1969
1975: Saigon Falls, oorlog in Vietnam eindigt
1976: De Concorde verandert het vliegverkeer
1977: opkomst van de pc
1979: Islamitische Republiek geboren in Iran
1983: Het internet is geboren
1989: De Berlijnse Muur valt
1991: Amerika voert oorlog in het Midden-Oosten, de apartheidswetgeving wordt ingetrokken
1992: Einde van de Koude Oorlog, uiteenvallen van Joegoslavië
1993: De EU wordt werkelijkheid met een verdrag
1994: Rwandese genocide
1999: Eerste onafhankelijke NAVO-aanval in Kosovo
2000: Internationaal ruimtestation ISS geopend
2001: 9/11 terroristische aanslagen op New York, VS vallen Afghanistan binnen
Rook stroomt uit de tweelingtorens van het World Trade Center nadat ze werden geraakt door twee gekaapte vliegtuigen tijdens een terroristische aanslag op 11 september 2001 in New York City
2003: VS vallen Irak binnen
2004: tweede kerstdag Tsunami, Facebook opgericht
2007: De iPhone wordt uitgebracht
2008: Dow stort in, wereldwijde economische crash
2012: Het ‘Goddeeltje’ wordt (waarschijnlijk) ontdekt
2016: Trump gekozen, Groot-Brittannië stemt voor vertrek uit de EU
2019: Protesten in Hongkong
2020: wereldwijde pandemie COVID-19
2022: Rusland valt Oekraïne binnen
2023: Johanna Mazibuko sterft ‘128 jaar oud’ volgens naasten
.