Moyahabo Mabeba
Limpopo health workers might have found the oldest person in the world.
Gogo Masoko Lebea is 122 years old, according to her ID above.
And she still wanted her Covid jab.
She turned up at Kgapane Hospital in Limpopo to register for a vaccine last week, but the system rejected her.
Bewildered healthcare workers couldn’t understand why – until they saw her date of birth:
5th July 1899!
The registering system apparently rejected Gogo Masoko’s application because her date of birth starts with 99 – the system assumed it was 1999.
At 122 years old, Gogo Masoko is five years older than the world’s oldest verified person, Japan’s Kane Tanaka, who is 117.
Assuming her ID document is accurate, it means she was born while Queen Victoria was still Queen of England, Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo was king of the Zulus and Paul Kruger was President of the Transvaal Republic.
She was born three months before the start of the Anglo Boer war.
When her application for a jab was rejected, staff had no choice but to send Masoko back to her home in Tsatsa village outside Tzaneen in Limpopo.
She was devastated. Bursting into tears, she told the staff that she understood the importance of vaccinations.
The healthcare workers then informed Phophi Ramathuba, the Limpopo Minister of Health and a medical doctor by profession, who arranged to do the vaccination herself.
On Thursday, she visited Masoko, who was sitting outside in the sun waiting to be vaccinated on the patio.
The great great grandmother got VIP vaccine treatment, as well as a birthday cake.
Ramathuba said she was impressed that the old lady was still willing and eager to receive the vaccine.
“Our elders are our VIPs. We will go the extra mile to vaccinate them in their homes,” she said.
The MEC said the rejection of Masoko by the electronic registering system was understandable because the old woman was born in the 1800s and the system didn’t go back further than 1900.
After her vaccination, Masoko said she was overjoyed and hoped that the vaccines would curb the pandemic.
“I took the vaccine out of my own will and I believe that I will live longer. God is always on my side,” she told Scrolla.Africa, adding: “And I also eat healthy, nutritious food.”
A great-great grandmother of 24, Masoko said she loved her Coke.
“I still enjoy my Coke but I’m more relaxed when I drink tea. I eat a lot of white meat because red meat makes me sick. My diet consists of too many fruits and vegetables and pap.”
Her advice for long life: “Make healthy food choices, forgive and believe in God.”
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