TOUWSRIVIER, South Africa, Sept 27, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - A South African woman 
celebrated her 118th birthday Friday as one of the oldest people in the world 
with a small party at her care home.

Margaret Maritz was born on September 27, 1906, according to a copy of her 
identity card shown to journalists by a charity that helped to organise the 
party in Touws River, 180 kilometres (110 miles) northeast of Cape Town.

The document has not been independently verified but if confirmed would make 
Maritz older than Japanese national Tomiko Itooka who was born on May 23, 
1908 and is listed by the US-based Gerontology Research Group as currently 
the world's oldest living person.

Flanked by two of her 14 children, Maritz blew out a candle on a large pink 
birthday cake at the party in the small town of Touws River.

"She talks about her life as a young woman, (saying) you must respect your 
mother and your father. She didn't drink, she didn't smoke," a senior nurse 
at the home, Gregory Elroy Adams, told AFP.

"We must be grateful," said one of her daughters, Liza Daniels, 67. "I don't 
know if I will reach that age one day. But for me it's a very, very big 
privilege to have a mother that reaches this age."

According to the Guinness World Records website, the oldest verified person 
is French national Jeanne Calment, who died in August 1997 at the age of 122 
years and 164 days.

"Several people have been claimed to be older than Jeanne, but there has 
never been enough evidence to authenticate them," it says.

The oldest known South African died in March 2023 just two months before 
turning 129.

Johanna Mazibuko was born on May 11, 1894 according to her identity papers, 
although these were not confirmed as authentic by authorities.