100, and still going strong

THE YEAR was 1914. Two days before Ndlibhi Paulos Mavuso was born, Mahatma Gandhi left South Africa for the last time, sailing out of Cape Town for England on board the SS Kinfauns Castle. Shortly after he was born that year, the First World War began, a conflict that rocked the world but whose effects were probably not felt in the deeply rural area between Piet Retief and the Swaziland border where Ndibhi was born, on July 20, 1914.

A whole century later, and Ndlibhi is a short, lean man who looks as if he’s carved from mahogany. He now works in the SAPS community garden behind the Dog Unit in Heeren Street.

Yes, he can still wield a spade, and given his age his eyesight is good, his hearing is good, his mind is clear and he stands upright with a twinkle in his eye.

He has never smoked, although he has taken snuff, has never eaten much meat, and loves maas.

His earliest memories are of swarms of locusts, and of eating ndoni berries. In fact, he claims that it is the berries that gave him his strength. And he needed strength in his life.

He never learned to read and write and spent his working life as a farm labourer and for a while worked at Coronation mine.

Ndlibhi attributes his long life to his love of his church, the Zion Christian Church, and also to his respect for his elders. His wife, in her nineties, passed away about three weeks ago, and of their 10 children only three are now still alive.

He is a remarkable man, totally unassuming and appearing a little bit amused at the fuss he’s been shown as a result of being 100 years old.

On Monday this week at the SAPS community garden, he was presented with an enormous birthday cake by the SAPS, fellow garden workers and community leaders.

From the rest of Vryheid, “Happy birthday, Ndlibhi”.