included the removal of offensive notice boards. Roads had been paved and new ones built. There was considerable room for improvement in the design of buildings; verandas had been removed and balconies broken down. Electric street lights, like those introduced a few years previously in Kimberley, required urgent attention, he declared. The same applied to a new city hall, since the Burgher Watch House had been build in 1775 and the building was no longer adequate for the needs of the city.
The Company Gardens were transferred to the municipality by government, a step he welcomed enthusiastically. He also referred to the voters’ roll and the census, important visitors from abroad and the London agents of the city council. In conclusion, he thanked the councillors and officials, as well as the press. According to an observer, Graaff’s report “vibrate[d] with energy and activity”.19
Various councillors praised Graaff after this report for what he had achieved in his year of service. The oldest councillor, G.A. Ashley, deemed it his duty to add his congratulations to those of the earlier speakers. He declared that Graaff, in his opinion, had achieved more in his year of service than all his successors together.20
Graaff thanked the speakers and declared to applause:
“He had always understood that public service men in Cape Town got more kicks than halfpence for public service, but he must say that he was very glad to admit that his experience had been quite the contrary. Not only had he been thanked and supported by the Councillors in Council, but even the outside public had been eager to acknowledge any little good that had been done to promote the interests and the welfare of the city and its inhabitants. His experience had been a most pleasing one… He only desired to see Cape Town made the queen of South African cities, a metropolis worthy of the country. His heart was full, and all he could do was to thank them earnestly and sincerely.”21
Combrinck’s funeral was held the following Saturday, 8 August 1891. According to an extensive report in the Cape Times a large number of mourners, including various Cape dignitaries, came to pay their last respects – a strong indication of the esteem in which Combrinck was held in the Cape community.
After a short service in Woodstock House the funeral procession departed for the Groote Kerk in Cape Town, where Combrinck had been an elder. David Graaff was in the first coach behind the hearse with his sister, Hannie, his younger brother, Kobie, and his wife, Susan Elsabie Maria (née Theunissen, whom Kobie had married in 1889). More relatives followed in the next three coaches. The fifth, the private coach of the deceased with its own driver and his favourite horses, contained a large number of wreaths of flowers. That was followed by a long procession of about fifty coaches, horse-drawn carts and other vehicles.
In Cape Town the coffin was carried into the church by the Cape premier, Cecil John Rhodes, Sir John Henry de Villiers (the subsequent chief justice of the Union), J.W. Sauer, Onze Jan Hofmeyr, Sir Gordon Sprigg, Colonel F. Schermbrucker, M.L. Neethling and D.C. de Waal. The minister, Reverend A.I. Steytler, who delivered the memorial service in Dutch, declared that Combrinck had always been prepared to help with any plan that could improve the welfare of Cape Town. Though he had never married, the deceased had always loved children, and had adopted a number of children of deceased relatives into his house and educated them. Earlier he had referred to his home as an orphanage. As a politician – he was an energetic member of the Afrikaner Bond – he had not been known for his eloquence, but his common sense had been appreciated by all who had known him.
After the service the funeral procession moved to the Cape Town station, where a special train took the mourners to the Maitland Cemetery. There the pall-bearers lowered the coffin of Cape teak into the grave, which Combrinck had picked himself. Rhodes placed two bunches of white and blue violets on the coffin. After the grave had been filled up, wreaths were laid on top, including one from relatives David and Johanna Graaff, a second from John and Rosetta Graaff, and a third from Jacobus and Susan Graaff.22
The arrangements for the funeral were made by Hannie, as determined in Combrinck’s will, signed at Woodstock on 28 July 1891. He left her all his furniture, crockery, silver and jewellery, draught horses and harnesses.
Apart from his bequest to Hannie, Combrinck bequeathed an amount of £500 to each of his nephews D.P. de V. (David) and J.A.C. (Kobie) Graaff. Various properties in Cape Town and Woodstock went to his nephew Jacobus Arnoldus Rynhoud and his niece Hannie. She could also take over Woodstock House for the sum of £2 000. The remainder of the estate was divided into equal parts between her and Rynhoud. They were also appointed executors of the estate.23
Hannie married Pieter Maritz Botha in Woodstock House a few years later. The bride was given away by her brothers David and Jan and about 400 guests attended the reception in Woodstock House.24 Maritz Botha, a grandson of the Voortrekker leader Gerrit Maritz, was known as a big-game hunter. After the Thirstland Trek and the founding of Upingtonia he had a fall-out with his leader, and married Hannie. After their wedding she went to live in Villiersdorp, where he only visited her intermittently. In the Dutch Reformed manse in town there was a portrait of Hannie wearing a locket in which she always kept a photograph of Botha.25
Despite Graaff’s earlier indication that he would retire after his year-long term as mayor, he was renominated for the position on 13 August 1891. There was one other nominee, Johan Mocke, who declined the nomination after councillor Thomas O’Reilly had pointed out that the work being done required continuity and that it was the general desire of the taxpayers that Graaff should continue. Mocke, who would succeed Graaff as mayor a year later, agreed that it would be a pity to stop the good work which Graaff had begun.26 Therefore, Graaff was re-elected unanimously and with acclamation.
At that meeting the mayor and city council received an invitation from the Anglican Church to attend the service in St George’s Cathedral the following Sunday morning. At the proposal of councillors Stigant and Wessels, the invitation was gratefully accepted. They added that, if the DR Church invited them, they would like to attend the evening service (evidently in the Groote Kerk). Their proposal was accepted unanimously27 – an indication of an improved relationship between Afrikaans- and English-speaking people in Cape Town, after the First Boer War in Transvaal had brought some estrangement. Mayoral Sunday would remain an institution in Cape Town for a long time.
During this period Graaff also became commander of the Cape Garrison Artillery Regiment, which he had joined as volunteer. He became honorary colonel of the regiment, where his son De Villiers would later succeed him in the same capacity.28
At this point the fulfilment of Graaff’s most important contributions to the city, especially the supply of electricity and more effective management of finances, was still a thing of the future.
At the same time a strong movement developed advocating that he should stand for parliament. One request came from 94 Malays, all of them taxpayers from the city centre and the Bo-Kaap – thus another indication of his esteem among all sectors of the multiracial Cape community. Their petition, signed by all of them, read:
“… a widespread desire has been expressed that no time should be lost in requesting you, even in these early hours of your grief, to allow yourself to be nominated for the vacant seat. Your eminent business tact, the unprecedented record of your first year as Mayor, the ability you have displayed in conducting the affairs of the Metropolis, the influence you carry in high quarters, which will be used for the good of the people, and the thorough knowledge you possess of the Country and its people, all point to you as the man most fitted to carry on the good work of your late Uncle and further the interests of South Africa.”29
The support for Graaff from the Malay community of the Cape was quite significant, as Malays had revolted against the municipal authorities during the smallpox epidemic of 1882.30 The epidemic was so bad that cemeteries within the municipal boundaries were closed. Muslims protested against that, and a Malay resistance movement was led by Abdol Burns, also known as the “Mahdi of
