South African Thought to be World’s Oldest Man Dead at 116

A South African believed to be the world’s oldest man died Saturday. He was 116 years old and a survivor of the 1918 Spanish Flu.

Fredie Blom’s family said he died of natural causes at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town.

Blom was born May 8, 1904, in the rural town of Adelaide, near the Great Winterberg mountains of Eastern Cape province, but he was not listed by Guinness World Records.

The oldest man on record is Bob Weighton, 112, in Britain.

South African media, however, have described Blom as “unofficially” the world’s man.

He was the only survivor of a family whose other members died during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. Blom also went on to survive two world wars and South Africa’s apartheid.

Blom was married for 46 years to a woman named Jeanette and became the father of her three children. He became the grandfather of five.

VOA