Background
As reported by ITN"s Martin Geissler for Independent Television News, Temo claimed she was born on 4 July 1874, making her 134 years old.
As reported by ITN"s Martin Geissler for Independent Television News, Temo claimed she was born on 4 July 1874, making her 134 years old.
She claimed an age at least six years older than that of any other living claimant, but her claim has never been verified by Guinness World Records. Official records were not kept at that time. Her claim is documented by a government passport identity document issued to her in 1988, according to the Afrikaans-language Beeld Daily, based on testimonials by family members.
Blind since the 1950s, she lived in Limpopo Province, South Africa, with a daughter reportedly now aged over 90.
Her longevity did not seem to be a result of a healthy diet: her favorite foods were spinach, meat, sweets, and Coca-Cola. Her youngest daughter, Evelyn Mothemane, was 78 when her mother celebrated her purported 132nd birthday, meaning she would have been born when her mother was 53 or 54.
Temo"s apparent explanation for this was that it was common for women to have children later in life. At the celebration of what was claimed to be 134th birthday, it was announced that there would be further attempts to get Temo"s age verified.
She died of natural causes on 3 June 2009.
Only two months earlier, on 22 April, she had voted in the general elections.