‘I THANK GOD FOR SPARING ME'

One of SA’s oldest people – 117-year-old Oom Jan – lets YOU in on his secrets to living a long and happy life

- NASIFA SULAIMAN

HE WAS born into a South Africa that was still a British colony, where the ANC was yet to be formed and the spark that would ignite World War 1 was a decade away.

The year was 1904 and Jan Steenberg would go on to live through more than a century of tumultuous changes: wars, the rise and fall of apartheid, a technological revolution and two pandemics – Spanish flu and Covid.

And these changes could be reflected on when Oom Jan (“uncle” Jan) – as he’s affectionately known – recently celebrated his 117th birthday.

He’s believed to be one of the oldest people in SA and is just two years younger than the oldest person in the world, Kane Tanaka of Japan, who turned 119 on 3 January. Jan celebrated his birthday on 31 December surrounded by family, but it was a quiet celebration.

“It was a small, simple affair,” he says. “My only wish is that my three children, two grandkids and two great-grandkids learn from me and honour the people in their lives so they too can reach this age.”

JAN attributes his longevity to “honouring my mother and father”.