His identity documents show that Fredie Blom was born in Eastern Cape province in May 1904.
Guinness World Record lists the oldest currently living man as Briton Bob Weighton, aged 112 but South African media have described Blom as “unofficially” the world’s oldest.
His entire family was wiped out by the 1918 Spanish flu when he was a teenager and went on to survive two world wars and apartheid.
Earlier this year, he spoke to AFP saying he had lived this long because of God’s grace.
Blom spent most of his life as a labourer, first on a farm then in the construction industry and retired when he was in his 80s.
He went on to raise three children of his wife of 46 years, Jeanette, as his own, becoming a grandfather to five over the years.
“Two weeks ago oupa (grandfather) was still chopping wood,” family spokesman Andre Naidoo told AFP fondly, recalling the old man using a 4-pound hammer.
“He was a strong man, full of pride,” he added.
But within 3 days, his family saw him shrink “from a big man to a small person.”
Mr. Blom’s family said he died of natural causes in Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town.
His death was “not a COVID death at all, it’s normal natural death,” Naidoo said in reference to the coronavirus pandemic.
