{"id":89104,"date":"2020-08-25T11:03:04","date_gmt":"2020-08-25T03:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=89104"},"modified":"2020-08-25T11:03:05","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T03:03:05","slug":"worlds-oldest-man-dies-aged-116-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=89104","title":{"rendered":"‘World’s oldest man’ dies aged 116 in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Fredie<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Fredie Blom – seen here on his 116th birthday – said there was no special secret to his longevity<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PRETORIA, Aug 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A South African who was thought to be the oldest man in the world has died at the age of 116.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fredie Blom’s identity documents showed he was born in Eastern Cape province in May 1904, although that was never verified by Guinness World Records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he was teenager, his entire family was wiped out by the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. He went on to survive two world wars and apartheid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blom told the media in 2018 that there was no special secret to his longevity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There’s only one thing – it’s the man above [God]. He’s got all the power. I have nothing. I can drop over any time but He holds me,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blom spent most of his life as a labourer – first on a farm and then in the construction industry – and only retired when he was in his 80s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although he gave up drinking many years ago, he was a regular smoker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a coronavirus-related lockdown imposed by the South African government reportedly meant he was unable to buy tobacco to roll his own cigarettes on his 116th birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blom’s family said he died of natural causes in Cape Town on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Two weeks ago oupa [grandfather] was still chopping wood,” family spokesman Andre Naidoo said. “He was a strong man, full of pride.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But within days Blom shrank “from a big man to a small person”, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naidoo said the family did not believe his death was related to Covid-19. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fredie Blom – seen here on his 116th birthday – said there was no special secret to his longevity PRETORIA, Aug 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A South African who was thought to be the oldest man in the world has died at the age of 116. Fredie Blom’s identity documents showed he was born in Eastern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":89109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89104"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=89104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/89109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}