As the country celebrated 20 years of democracy, grandmother, Ntombana Jumimah Dlamini, who resides in Madadeni, Section 3, cast her vote along with millions of South Africans on May 7.
Ms Dlamini claims to be one of the eldest people in South Africa, at the ripe old age of 135.
“I woke up as early as 6am waiting for the IEC officials to come and help me cast my vote,” she said. “It is important to vote for the government of your choice.”
Ms Dlamini and her children never had the opportunity to attend school..
“Democracy has brought change in my life, as I am no longer living on the farm,” she said.
Ms Dlamini’s family claims she is much older than her ID indicates. According to her green ID book she is 111 years old, which would mean she was born the same year as her firstborn son, in 1928.
Ms Dlamini’s eyesight is still good and her memory strong: “I was a teenager when World War 1 broke out in 1914 and ended in 1918,”she said.
Born in Mgungundlovana in Utrecht, Ms Dlamini uses a walking stick for support. Of her 10 children, five boys and five girls, only her fifth child, Sibongile Dlamini, a 79-year-old grandmother herself, still survives. She has 36 grandchildren and many great grandchildren.
“My husband, Petros, died 58 years ago at the age of 70,” she said. “It is easy to have a long life. You must eat the right food, not junk. I eat meat, pap, samp, maas, izinkobe (boiled mielies) and isijabane (vegetable porridge). Ï never use cooking oil.”
According to Ms Dlamini, there was no poverty in her culture until people stopped cultivating soil. “People were planting their own vegetables and had livestock to feed their families. It was not this lazy generation where everything is bought.”
Ms Dlamini’s great granddaughter Mpume Ndlanzi, 20, said her grandmother always tells them tales of the past.
“Our grandmother can narrate a story of Wolrd War 1 as if she was part of it,” she said. “Children in the neighbourhood always visit great-grandmother’s home for advice. We laugh all the time when we are with our grandmother.”
