received 11 votes to the five of the only other nominee, Johan Mocke.2
Half a century after Cape Town had received municipal status and Michiel van Breda had for the first time been appointed as its first citizen3 (1840–1844), Graaff now had the legendary chair known as Jan van Riebeeck’s chair in popular history writing.4 He was the 12th person in that position since the title of chairman of the municipality was changed to mayor in 1867, when Gillis J. de Korte officially became the first mayor.5 In the heavy leather-bound minute book the new mayor signed, for the first time, the minutes of the previous meeting in the then city hall, the Burgher Watch House adjacent to Greenmarket Square, with his flamboyant signature: D. P. Graaff, Mayor.6
He was quite serious about his official duties, even keeping scrapbooks in which a variety of newspaper articles and notices about municipal matters were pasted.7 A deep-seated sense of civic pride, certainly strengthened by his travels abroad, was evidently a major motivation for the innovations which he introduced in the Mother City. Graaff not only wanted to transform Cape Town into a clean, tidy city, but to develop it into the top city in the country with a series of modernising measures. His vision was a destination at the southern tip of Africa, of which every resident of Cape Town could be as proud as he was.
Soon he took a series of steps to elevate the status of mayor. A mayor’s parlour was furnished in the Burgher Watch House where official matters were dealt with. Pictures of previous and serving mayors were hung there.8
Graaff donated to the city council the insignia of office of the first citizen – the mayoral robe, hat and rod. A letter in which he elaborated on his motives was read out at a mayoral luncheon on 22 May 1891, attended, among others, by the governor, lieutenant-general, premier and ministers of the Cape Colony. This letter reads as follows:
“It has been my desire on leaving office to present the City for the use of the Mayor at all public functions the necessary official robe, hat, and rod, as worn by the first citizens of the principal towns in other countries, and as my term will shortly expire I think the present a fitting time for making the presentation. I have therefore promised and now offer to the Town Council of Cape Town, the Mayoral Robe, in royal silk velvet and ermine fur; also a Mayoral Hat and Rod of office. My sole motive in making the presentation is that the Chief Magistrate of the Metropolis of South Africa may in this respect be invested with the dignity of office which belongs to him, and to remove the long standing reproach that, while the mayors of smaller towns in the Cape Colony appear at public functions in official robes the Mayor of Cape Town is unable to do so. I trust the Council will be pleased to receive the gift on behalf of the City and that by its use the prestige and dignity of the City and the Mayor may be maintained and strengthened.”9
The insignia of office were handed to Graaff afterwards, who thus became the first mayor of the city to wear the mayoral robe he had donated himself. The governor (subsequently lord), Henry Brougham Loch, declared that Cape Town had an old and honourable reputation which was safe in the hands of the incumbent mayor and his municipality.10 A month later the city council also placed an order for the mayoral chain which is worn by Cape mayors at official occasions to this day.11
Graaff was praised in the media for his dynamic role. The Lantern expressed the hope that he would be re-elected mayor. According to the publication, he was on his way to become the Whittington of Cape Town – a reference to Sir Richard Whittington (1354–1423), the medieval trader and politician who, as mayor of London, carried through large public projects in the British capital. “In demeanour, courtesy, self-repression and dignity, and in the almost parental fondness with which he regards the new city he has for so long seen growing up by and with him, [he]… is eminently the right man in the right place as Mayor of Capetown,” it said.12
Graaff’s pride as a citizen was closely linked to the British civilian culture that was predominant in Cape Town, but even stronger in Natal, during that time. The community of British settlers regarded themselves as essentially British at that stage: part of and loyal to the British Empire. Symbols and rituals reflected this – the flag, public monuments and buildings and public celebrations and ceremonies, as well as the inauguration of officials, the reception of dignitaries, welcoming of royals and opening ceremonies.13
At the end of his first term Graaff delivered his first mayor’s minute at the council meeting of Thursday, 6 August 1891 – the day his patron, oud-oom Combrinck, died. At 62 years of age Combrinck succumbed to cancer after he had been ill for a few weeks.
Graaff’s report was a long and detailed account of what had been achieved in the municipal domain in the preceding year, as well as what had happened years ago and what would happen in the years ahead. It was regarded as one of the most comprehensive and informative mayor’s minutes ever issued in Cape Town.14 The same afternoon the report appeared over five newspaper columns in the Cape Argus – and next to it was a story about Combrinck’s death.15
Graaff described his term thus far as “steadily progressive”, but remarked that “[t]here is a great deal to do and much to undo to bring the city in harmony with its magnificent surroundings”.
The report almost read like a historical novel, since he painted a picture of the city as the beautiful queen who was held captive by the evil forces of decline and was freed by the loyal knights of progress – the mayors and councillors. Graaff referred to the year 1667, when the first municipal authority, the Burgher Council, was established under the rule of the DEIC. That was followed by the Civic Senate of 1796 when the Cape was a British Crown colony. In the Batavian era (1803–1806) field cornets were responsible for the different wards. In 1828 the municipality was taken over by the British colonial government, which, however, returned the management of municipal affairs to the local authorities in 1840 (when Michiel van Breda became the first citizen of the city). The Municipal Act of 1861, which divided the city into 12 districts and 48 wards, was amended in 1867 when a mayor was officially elected for the first time. Graaff gave the complete list of mayors since De Korte had officially become the first mayor in 1867.
Graaff declared that his term of office was resting on two cornerstones: a “magnificent drainage system” and “the provision of funds”. He took pride in the fact that the foundations for the drainage system, which ensured a healthy city, had been laid during his term at the helm. It replaced the old and foul-smelling sewerage system. Secondly, he referred to financial matters, an issue that would earn him great praise, especially because he had completely overhauled the city’s loans programme. It was his doing that the city council acquired the right to levy taxes on government property.16 That became possible after the introduction of the Crown Property Rating Bill in the Cape Parliament by the premier, Cecil John Rhodes. Rhodes pointed out that an eighth of the property in Cape Town was state property on which no municipal taxes were paid. That was unfair to the capital of the colony, which had to make sure that the buildings were safe and in good sanitary condition.17
With the approval of the legislation a new source of income from previously untaxed property was ensured. Therefore, in the Graaff era Cape Town acquired the necessary capital to take on considerable expansions and improvements within the municipal borders. For an effective drainage system, for example, a loan of £162 000 was negotiated.
In his report Graaff gave detailed comments about a variety of municipal and related matters, ranging from the mayoral parlour, the insignia of office and mayoral chain to a sea-wall promenade, the railway to Sea Point and the tramlines. He believed the fish market was unhygienic and had to be demolished. Furthermore, he recommended that an epidemic hospital be built on Rentzki Farm because the existing one was not suitable. He also proposed a shelter for stray dogs and that the removal of night soil should be organised better.18
Among the most important events of the preceding year, he mentioned the planned new theatre on the Grand Parade, the purchase of the stand of the Commercial Exchange for the construction of the new post office and the planning of a new fire station.
Other
