CAPE TOWN – “Oh, it feels glorious! It’s glorious to be 100 years old because I serve the Lord,” says local legend and great-grandmother Freda Naidoo who celebrated her milestone birthday on Sunday 12 January.
Her house, which is over 50 years old, is located in Fairways and remains one of the few homes that were built early in the area.
As you approach the home’s maroon doorsteps, the house is shrouded in exotic leafy shrubs while a group of ginger cats lay relaxing in the sun on her stoep.
People’s Post spoke with Naidoo who transported us back in time to when she was as a young woman working in Cape Town, as well as the near-death brushes she overcame when she was in her nineties.
Upon first meeting and speaking with Naidoo its clear to see why family members and neighbours adore her tenacious spirit, gleaming smile and infectious sense of humour.
She has a walker to assist her around the house.
Naidoo says she was born in Piketberg in 1926 and moved to Diep River decades after.
She has four siblings and is a mother to five children.
Her eldest daughter, died when she was forty.
“Piketberg was a beautiful place and my mother loved to bake cakes,” Naidoo said looking back fondly.
She was 24 years old when she married and started her life in Cape Town.
During apartheid, she and her family were forcibly removed from Diep River and ordered to move to Fairways due to the Group Areas Act, a government policy that uprooted communities based on race – and relocated them to designated areas, often far from their original homes.
Her daughter, Charmaine Aspeling, who was 12 years old at the time, describes the sudden move as quite traumatic.
“When we first arrived in Fairways, there were only about 20 houses and it was mostly bushes and gravel roads,” Naidoo recalls.
Naidoo found work as a furrier, crafting genuine fur coats for a Jewish company, Nooiman, in Burg Street in Cape Town’s CBD.
Naidoo credits her unwavering faith in God as an endless source of inspiration that sustained her during the hardships of apartheid and that it keeps her optimistic.
She recalls a special encounter at the age of 34 that led her on a spiritual journey.
She says when she started preaching as a female Evangelist in the 70’s, she encountered countless opposition who would not take her seriously as a pastor.
However, her critics could never halt her mission to connect with more believers and she remained resilient.
At the age of 90 tragedy struck Naidoo when she was crossing the street and a Toyota Quantum taxi knocked her over.
She shattered her skull twice and broke her foot.
“The robot was red for both ways. I fell on my head and I could hear how my skull cracked on the pavement. Some of the doctors didn’t want to operate but I told the one professor, ‘this surgery will be a perfect operation’ and one of the doctors thought I was high!” Naidoo says.
She spent 10 months in hospital recovering from a broken hip.
“The driver just drove off and disappeared,” Aspeling recalls.
At 97 years old, she started coughing up blood and was rushed to hospital.
One of the main veins of her heart had rupted and she had a heart stent put in and she made a full recovery.
Her neighbour, Kashiefah Bennett, who lives across from Naidoo, says she enjoys popping in on occasion and still finds amazing wisdom and comfort after spending an afternoon chatting with her.
Aspeling says her mother was a strict disciplinarian while they were growing up and says she still keeps them on their toes when she instructs with any home chores.
To this day, Naidoo enjoys cooking, cleaning and doing her grocery shopping at Kenilworth Shopping Centre aided by her son, Frank Carl Naidoo.
Last Christmas, Naidoo made four large bowls of trifle which she gave to some family members.
“She gave all the other family members large bowls of trifle but only made a small one for us!” Aspeling jokes.
Naidoo encourages those who wish to lead a healthy and long fulfilling life to seek God’s wisdom.
“When you look up, say thank you. You may not know what you receive. Every day you are covered, in your car and anything can happen in the way, but God makes your path clear,” she says.
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