World’s oldest woman’ dies aged 128: South African great-grandmother passes away from suspected stroke months after saying ‘What’s the point of being alive? I just sit here doing nothing’
Mother-of-seven Johanna Mazibuko, died in her Jouberton home on March 3
Reports said she had ID documents that prove she was born on May 11, 1894 A woman said to be the world’s oldest person has died in South Africa at the age of 128 having lived through three different centuries.

Mother-of-seven Johanna Mazibuko, died in her Jouberton, North West Province, home on March 3, and would have been 129 in May, local reports said.

Those close to her said she had ID documents that prove she was born on May 11, 1894, and grew up on a maize farm. She never went to school and could not read or write, they said.

Speaking to News24, her caregiver and daughter-in-law Thandiwe Wesinyana said Mazibuko may have died from a stroke.

Mazibuko told the publication on her 128th birthday: ‘I am amazed at why I am still here after so many years. Why am I still here? People around me have been dying.