Celebrating South African Centenarians: 100 years plus

Georgina Mary HARWOOD celebrated her 100th birthday on 10 March 2015 by tandem skydiving to raise R30 000 for life-jackets for National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI). She did her first jump at the age of 92, making this her third. Georgina arrived at the drop zone in a gyrocopter. Twelve family members also jumped that day, including her sons Ken who came from Australia and Jim who had a career as a military parachutist. Daniella MCGUIRE, her great-granddaughter, was the the youngest jumper. Georgina’s other 100th birthday adventures included taking a trip up Table Mountain, a trip on Cape Town City Sightseeing Bus, visiting Boulders Beach, Cape Point and the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB). She also went shark cage diving in Gansbaai with her great-grandson and raised another R5,000 for the NSRI. Motivated by her cause, her answer was only a slightly hesitant, “of course I will”.
Georgina was born on 10 March 1915 in Cape Town to James Alexander MITCHELL and Eileen Mary THOMPSON. She attended Pretoria High School for Girls, where a great-granddaughter also attends. Georgina enrolled at the University of Cape Town in 1931 and lived in the newly built Fuller House residence. She graduated with a BA in 1934. She co-founded the UCT Mountain Club. She married Edward Oswald Kuys HARWOOD in 1944 at St Thomas Anglican Church in Rondebosch. She was one of the first housing managers in Cape Town, working in District Six, Klal Bay and Athlone. She retired in 1947 when her daughter Homer was born. Georgina looked after Edward for 14 years when he after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. He passed away in 1996. Georgina died in her sleep on 30 July 2018 aged 103 in Cape Town. She was not able to walk by herself in the last few months. She had four children, 14 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

Mildred GCALI of Cosmos Old Age Home celebrated her 100th birthday on 19 February 2020. She grew up in the Eastern Cape. She married Vuso GCALI when she was 27 years old. He died in 2000. Mildred has four children and 12 grandchildren. She moved to the old age home when she was 93. She recalls watching the eclipse of the moon in 1940.

Johanna (Joan) HAYTER of Stilbaai celebrated her 100th birthday on 02 December 2020. With the exception of arthritis, Joan is still very healthy. She was on 02 December 1920 to Sophia Johanna Jacoba NEL at Paul Kruger House in Pretoria. She grew up on the farm, Rietfontein, in Potchefstroom, and later when she visited her grandparents on the farm Dublin, near Stella. She attended the convent in the area. Later she attended Klipdrift School, on the Vereeniging Road, and when she moved to Pretoria she attended Bergerwright School. In 1939, Joan married Joseph (Joe) Charles MILLETT-CLAY and the couple had four children: June (died 2011), Marian (lives in Stilbaai), Charles and Robert (lives in Benoni). They lived in Welkom, where Joe worked as a foreman fitter and turner at the Western Holdings Gold Mine for many years. He died in 1973. Joan’s second marriage was to Fred HAYTER in 1975. After his death in 1987, Joan looked after her elderly mother and stepfather for seven years until they both died. In 1995 Joan moved to Ridgeview Retirement Village in Impala Park, where she lived for 23 years. In 2018 she moved to the Carewell Centre in Stilbaai. Joan has 10 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren. Joan died on 03 April 2024 in Stilbaai, age 103 years.

Rose NORWICH, who held a Masters in architecture, died on 26 August 2024 at the age of 103 in Johannesburg. She was survived by her four children, eight grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren who live overseas. She started her master’s dissertation at the age of 66, 44 years after completing her first degree. It took her four years to find, research and compile the history 43 of the early synagogues of Johannesburg and the Reef. In 1988, she was awarded her Master’s degree, with distinction. She also wrote her biography, In Celebration of a Century.
Rose was born in Johannesburg on 02 January 1921 to Abraham SIVE and Lilly MACHANIK. Her father was a Lithuanian immigrant in 1895 when he started work in a pharmacy. Her mother’s family came from England in the late 1800s. Rose was one of five children who grew up in a home in Houghton. She attended Johannesburg Girls’ High School, known as Barnato Park, with her sister, Annette. Apart from music and elocution lessons, the children had private Hebrew lessons every week. The family attended Wolmarans Street Synagogue. Rose later became a founding member of the Great Park Synagogue in Melrose. She began her Bachelor of Architecture degree at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1939 and graduated during World War II. Ruth was one of few women to qualify in the field of architecture during the 1940s. Her first employer was Cook & Cowen, where she worked without pay for a long time before they began paying her a very small salary.
While visiting an aunt and uncle in Kalk Bay, she met a surgeon, Dr Isadore (Oscar) NORWICH. He was a Johannesburg surgeon, who was an avid collector of Africana maps. After returning to Johannesburg, she and Oscar started dating and were married in 1945. They worked and travelled in the United States from July 1945 to 1946 when they returned to Johannesburg. They lived at 41 – 1st Avenue in Lower Houghton, where they raised their children: Michael Saul, Brahm, Elda May, and Lorraine Sue. In the late 1940s, Oscar was in charge of the Johannesburg General Hospital and was very involved in growing Profmed in its early years. Profmed started as a medical scheme for medical professionals and later all professionals.
Rose was an active member of the Transvaal Council (later the South African Jewish Board of Deputies). In 1966, she got involved with ORT, an international educational organisation. Together with Richard GOLDSTONE and Basil WUNSCH, she resurrected the organisation and saw it grow. In 1968, she was asked to join the executive committee of the Union of Jewish Women (UJW). One of her first assignments was to arrange a Jewish photographic exhibition in the Johannesburg Library.
In 1967, the couple sought medical treatment for Oscar in London, where he was operated on. Various complications meant that the trip was extended to six months. He recovered and they returned to Johannesburg. In 1976, Rose was elected president of the UJW. She was outspoken in her opposition to apartheid. Oscar died on 16 October 1994 following a short illness. After his death, his collection of Africana maps was sold to the David Rumsey Map Centre at Stanford University in the US. He wrote three books: Maps of Africa, Maps of Southern Africa, and A Johannesburg Album: Historical Postcards. In memory of him, she and the children started the Oscar Norwich Travelling Fellowship in 1995 to encourage and reward the study of new skills.
Together with Adrienne KOLLENBERG and Phyllis JOWELL, Rose was joint convenor of a project to record the history of Jewish communities in the country areas of South Africa. It grew into the publication of six volumes by The South African Friends of Beth Hatefutsoth. Titled Jewish life in the South African Country Communities, the books cover more than 1,500 centres across the country, providing a record of the estimated 10,000 to 20,000 Jewish people who lived in the country districts at various times.

Kenaope Violet MOSIDI was evicted from her home in Meadowlands at the age of 101 in 2022. She lived with her granddaughter Patricia, who took care of her as all her children are deceased. Her family said a cousin allegedly sold the house for R350 000. The buyer sent his friends to evict Kenaope but her neighbours intervened. Meadowlands residents camped outside her home to protect her. The buyer said her bought the house from another granddaughter, Kedibone. The long history of the disputed house allegedly started when Kedibone claimed that the property belonged to her and was given to her by her late father, one of Kenaope’s late children. The grandchildren at the house disputed this saying that was untrue and the house belongs to their grandmother. Kenaope was moved to an old age home while an investigation was underway. The Collen Mashawana Foundation got involved and made arrangements for her to move to her marital home in Rustenburg, where she lived most of her life. Kenaope died in November 2024.

Michael (Mike) BROWNING was born in London, England, on 21 July 1922. He married Ruth Olwen DAVIES in 1949 and immigrated to South Africa. He worked in sales. They had one daughter who now lives in Cape Town. Ruth died in 2014. Mike lives in the frail care section of a retirement village in Randburg. He drove a car until he was 95.

Elizabeth MNGOMEZULU celebrated her 100th birthday on 29 October 2022 in Daveyton, Ekurhuleni. The celebration was attended by her 48 grandchildren, her two surviving children Thoka and Thamdi, and her friends. Elizabeth had eight children. She can still load airtime on her phone and can see who’s calling on the phone.

Ellen MAKHOBA celebrated her 109th birthday on 05 January 2023 in Mofolo North, Soweto, where she lived with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was born in Umsinga, KwaZulu-Natal in 1914. Ellen attended school for about three years until her father died, and then she had to help her mother grow vegetables and look after livestock. Ellen married at 21 and continued to farm and earning an income by selling vegetables. She moved to Johannesburg in 1935. Her husband died in 1965 after 30 years of marriage. They had six children who gave her 18 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Five of her children pre-deceased her. In 2008, she became blind; it lasted for two years until her cataracts were removed.

Adele SAMUELSON turned 110 on 01 October 2024 in Michmoret, Israel, where she lives with one of her two daughters. Adele was born in 1914 (1917 according to South Africa’s National Poulation Register), the eldest of seven SOLOMON children and spent her early childhood in Rosettenville, Johannesburg, and then moved to Cape Town. She had to leave school early before her matriculation to help earn money for the family. She went to college to learn shorthand, typing, and office work. She immigrated to Israel in 1979 with her husband and daughters. She met Skea (Ezekiel Gedalia) SAMUELSON in the early 1940s. Adele moved to Mandatory Palestine and Skea was to follow. Together with three young women from Durban, she sailed on a Polish ship, SS Kosciuszko, which was carrying Italian prisoners of war, that went via Egypt. The voyage took three weeks. They disembarked at Port Said and travelled by boat and train to Haifa. Adele spent a year on Kibbutz Kfar Blum. Skea’s mother in South Africa became ill and he couldn’t join Adele, so she moved back to South Africa and got married in 1945 at the Rosettenville Shul. They had two daughters. Adele worked as secretary to the president of Tel Aviv University for 18 years. She also did all the English work for the legal department of the university. Adele retired at the age of 84. She was also a skilled dressmaker. In her mid 90s, she became the oldest passenger to fly El Al when she flew to Durban to visit her sister. Adele died on 25 October 2025 at age 111 in Michmoret. She was Israel’s oldest person.

Hilary Phyllida VAN DER RIET celebrated her 100th birthday on 29 November 2024 at Fairmead Court in Rondebosch. Hilary Phyllida HOPWOOD was born in Liverpool, England, on 29 November 1924. She moved to Bloemfontein at the age of 2. She attended St Michaels Primary School and matriculated from Eunice High School. Hilary did a BA in education at the University of the Free State and taught English, Latin and history. She married Thomas (Tom) Vaughan Barry VAN DER RIET in 1945 at St Peter’s Anglican Church in Krugersdorp. At the time, he was a clerk on active service. His first marriage was to Fredrika NYKAMP in 1941 in Port Elizabeth. Tom and Hilary settled in Port Elizabeth, where they had three children – Roslyn (lives in the USA), Pyllida (lives in Cape Town) and Clive (died 2019). Tom died in 2001. Hilary has six grandchildren.

Poto DYANTYISI celebrated his 111th birthday in April 2025 in Patensie, in his own house after years of living in a shack. In 2014, Poto moved into his son Joseph’s shack, but it was very cold in winter and very hot in summer. As a result, Poto’s health deteriorated. In July 2024, shortly after his 110th birthday, Poto opened the door to his fully furnished home built through the Department of Human Settlements’ Destitute and Vulnerable Groups Programme. Poto’s health has since improved. He had never owned a home of his own. Joseph had to leave work to take care of his father full time, together with his wife Linda.

Katrina ADRIAANSE celebrated her 100th birthday on 28 July 2025, with the contry’s deputy president showing up to cut the cake. She walks without a walking stick and still cooks and cleans in her apartment at the Reënboog Old Age Home in Heidedal, Bloemfontein. Katrina married Jacobus, a bricklayer, and they had 12 children, including two pairs of twins. Three of her four surviving children attended her birthday party: Moses, Andrew, and Kathleen. Sarie (73) was not able to attend.

Cornelius Janse DE VILLIERS of Boksburg South celebrated his 100th birthday on 03 October 2025. He walks every day and still takes care of himself. He was born on 03 October 1925 in Warden near Harrismith and attended farm schools. He work for the railways as a flagman and later as a boilermaker and welder. He remembers hiring a room in Commissioner Street from the boxer Johnny SQUIRES, and meeting his widow in Durban. Cornelius’s first marriage was to Mossie LOUW. They had twins and daughters. His second marriage was to Johanna Elizabeth (Bets) JOOSTE in 1977 in the Klipkerk. They had one son. Cornelius has five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Jeffrina (Fien) Sophia Elizabeth TIEDT celebrated her 106th birthday on 06 October 2025 at the Groenwilgers Old Age Home in Potchefstroom. She was born on 06 October 1919 as the youngest of eight children of Louwrens NOLTE and Markie LOMBARD. She grew up on a farm along the Suikerbosrand near Heidelberg. She lodged with an English couple who owned a nursery in Heidelberg, while attending Hoër Volkskool Heidelberg. Her father was one of the first peope in Heidelberg to own a motor car. Fien drove her own car until the age of 97. Fien studied at Potchefstroomse Universiteit vir Christelike Hoër Onderwys, where she met Niek TIEDT. They married in 1943. He was later a professor and head of the chemistry department. He died in 2006. Fien taught at Laerskool M.L. Fick in Potchefstroom until her retirement. She was a skilled baker, and still made chutneys at the age of 101. She was also a Sunday school teacher and was involved in charity projects. In her 90s, she drove a four wheel drive vehicle during a family holiday in Botswana. Fien and Niek had four children: Dr Louwrens Tiedt, Dr Johan Tiedt, Marietjie, and Louise. Fien has 14 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.

Rosemary DE WAAL celebrated her 100th birthday on 14 October 2025 at The Association for the Aged (TAFTA) Park home in Bellair, Durban. She was born on 14 October 1925 in Durban to John EBELTHITE and Agnes Emma PITTS. The family lived in the house that John built. Her siblings are Elsie (died 1970), Brian (died 1968), Eric (died 2009), and Molly. Rosemary worked as a secretary, but she was also a skilled cake decorator, seamstress, and mosaic artist. She won a top award at the Natal Royal Show for her cakes. Rosemary has seven grandchildren and several great-grandchildren living across the globe. She keeps in touch with them on her iPad. Rosemary’s first marriage was to Leonard CARBONI in 1946 in the Catholic church in Durban. At the time, he was a cabinet maker. Her second marriage was to Marthinus Johannes DE WAAL in 1950 in the NGK in Durban. At the time, he was a constable in the South African Police.