By Genevieve Serra 
10h ago
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Cape Town – There must be something in the water in Delft as some of the oldest people in the Western Cape have come from the area.
A senior citizen in Delft even reached the age of 116.
Yesterday, two of Delft’s oldest residents who reached the ripe old age of 103 and 100 were celebrated.
Nosayinete Cetyiwe turned 103 on January 4, while Sofie Frede Fortuin celebrated her 100th birthday on June 16.
The Delft Senior Forum together with ward councillor, Dineo Mosia, and other senior citizens arranged a celebration for two of their most senior residents on Friday.
Also present at the event held at the Delft Civic was Jeanette Blom, 88, the widow of Fredie Blom.
Blom of Delft was hailed the oldest person in the Western Cape who died at age 116 last August of natural causes.
The women were showered with gifts and cakes and donned crowns on top of their heads.
Fortuin, who was born in Philippi, has outlived all of her four children, continues to wash herself and still smokes.
She has five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren and used to work on tobacco farms when she was a young woman.
When asked how she was doing, she said: “God is still keeping me, I feel very good.”
Yolelwa Cetyiwe, 23, is the great-granddaughter of Cetyiwe and spoke on her behalf.
Cetiywe grew up in Queenstown in the Eastern Cape before she moved to Cape Town and later Delft where she has been living for three decades.
She had three children and now has two who have survived and 12 grandchildren.
Yolelwa said her grandmother enjoyed reading the Bible and could still walk and wash herself and cook and that they felt blessed to have her.
“She likes to sit and read her Bible,” she said.
“We feel blessed to still have her because many of us do not reach the age of 60.”
Sergeant Siyabonga Dyantyi of Delft police station’s social crime prevention unit said they had a responsibility to honour the elderly. “At our police station, I commit myself that all seniors when they go for services they do not have to stand in long queues.
“You pass the queue and get preference. Our seniors who know better how to live life, and a meaningful life, the role of implementing good social relations, we put it to our seniors.”
Gadija Francis, chairperson of the Delft Senior Forum, said they had arranged the event to celebrate the elderly. “I approached the ward councillor, to ask her whether she is aware that she has two elderly people in her ward and we decided to plan an event.
“In the past we had events for Mr Blom who passed away. What we decided now is that when people have reached 80 years old we will go to their homes and bless them with a cake.”