of cold storage in South Africa.24
After this the head office of Combrinck & Co. moved to Strand Street, where it advertised:
Combrinck & Co.
Butcher
Contractors to Her Majesty
Shambles Nos 3, 4 & 5. Near the Custom House, Cape Town.
Shipping supplied with the Best Fresh and Salted Meat
on the Shortest Notice and Most Reasonable Terms.
Poultry, Vegetables & Potatoes
Always on Hand a Good Supply of Live Stock.25
Graaff not only focused on the meat industry, but also tried to take advantage of other business opportunities. One such opportunity presented itself in 1885 when tenders were requested for the provision of food and other supplies for black labourers working on the extension of the railway from the Great River (the Orange, later Gariep River) to Kimberley. He and an older friend, David C. de Waal, a brother-in-law of Onze Jan Hofmeyr, applied for the tender under the name Graaff & Co., and it was awarded to the two Davids.
De Waal later became a Member of Parliament.26 De Waal Park in Cape Town, where he had planted trees, was named after him. At the time the tender was awarded he was 40. His “good young Afrikaner friend” Graaff is described in De Waal’s biography as “a chap still only 26 years old, but in possession of a wonderful talent for business and very bright and determined by character”. Soon the pair discovered that the new venture they had taken on was “an anything but easy task”. They had to be present in person, at least one of them at a time, and that “means enduring dust, heat, hardships and a really rough, unenviable life”.
As they were sitting at their fire one night after an exhausting day, the older David, later a faithful friend of Cecil John Rhodes, whom he accompanied on his trips to Mashonaland,27 sighed about the “dog’s life” he had to endure in the veld. “The younger one, a model of phlegmatic serenity, then pointed out to him that entrepreneurial spirits were usually, more so than others, subject to harassments, but that those spirits were the ones rising in the world. ‘I, for example,’ David Graaff added, ‘am still going to become a cabinet minister.’ The other David smiled about that in scepticism. Yet the ambitious young man could also have added that he would become the wealthiest Dutch-speaking Afrikaner of his time in the whole of South Africa, and a baronet as well.”28
This account makes it clear that Graaff, apart from his business acumen, drive, persistence and determination to reach the top in his career, was a remarkable individual already at an early age.
The rise of entrepreneurial, urbanised Afrikaners who were also influential in politics became significant in this period, although it was not received favourably all over. The politician John X. Merriman, for example, who had earlier described Graaff as one of the “new breed of pushy urban Afrikaners”, wrote in a letter to M. Currey in 1886:
“I feel sorry for the Mole (Hofmeyr), who has to fight an uphill battle and obviously does with great pluck, but I wish he saw that his interest led him in the opposite direction of the Graaffs and De Waals.”
Merriman’s denigrating remarks were interpreted by his biographer, Phyllis Lewsen, as a reference to a new group of upwardly mobile Afrikaners of Cape Town.29 They played an important part in the Afrikaner Bond.
In addition to his extensive interests in the meat industry, which were profoundly affected by the improvement in sanitary conditions, in his public duties in the city council Graaff increasingly played a role in financing city projects, and in particular the electrification of the town.
In 1884 he became a member of the city council’s finance committee, where he made an important contribution to the sound management of the city’s finances.
The taxes collected the previous year were not sufficient to cover the budgeted amount for general works.30 The finance committee therefore decided to take legal steps against those who did not pay their municipal taxes. Better arrangements were made to restructure and gradually repay a loan from Standard Bank. Holders of 6 per cent debentures to the amount of £243 650 received six months’ notice of repayment of interest unless they chose to have the interest reduced to 5 per cent, since the city council could now accept tenders for 5 per cent debentures. The city council also arranged with government to withdraw its loan amount in instalments, so government would not lose interest and the council would only pay interest on the amount actually paid out.31
The council also secured foreign loans. Graaff apparently played a role in these decisions, since he was re-elected to the finance committee twice, although he had to give up his seat because he could not attend meetings. The taxpayers, who had to approve these steps with their financial implications, gave the council more powers than ever before in the period while Graaff remained involved.32
An extraordinary loan of £12 000 negotiated in 1886 for a drainage system regarded as essential for the progress and health of the city, was followed in 1887 by a £25 000 loan for the Table Mountain water provision scheme. The following year £3 075 was approved for sewer pipes for the city.33
Evidently, not only Graaff can be credited for the financing of the city projects. Although he had considerable influence with the taxpayers, the smallpox epidemic also played a major role, since it made improved sanitation imperative. Nevertheless, as a knowledgeable businessman he was the right man in the right place.
His business experience also came in handy in the Cape Town Chamber of Commerce. Rail extensions to Transvaal, an important issue for Cape Town, were discussed at a meeting of the Chamber in 1887 and among those present were Onze Jan Hofmeyr and D.C. de Waal. The emphasis was on expansion to the Transvaal border with an extension of the railway from Kimberley to Parys. Graaff, to whom the transport of meat products was a matter of great importance, became a member of the chamber’s vigilance committee that had to look after the interests of Cape Town with regard to the railway extensions from the goldfields to the Cape Colony.34
The considerable contribution he made in public life, including the activities of the city council, made such a good impression that within a few years Graaff was regarded as worthy of being a parliamentarian. In 1888, at the age of 29, he was approached by influential Cape residents, including the incumbent mayor, John Woodhead, to make himself available for election as Member of the Cape Parliament. In a newspaper advertisement he politely refused the honour rendered to him. He declared that due to his business obligations he would not be able to do justice to the great responsibilities that he would have as representative of the seat of Cape Town in the House of Assembly.35
A larger political role would await him after he had been elected as mayor of the Mother City.
CHAPTER 6
In Van Riebeeck’s chair
Shortly before the end of 1889 Graaff served in a delegation that persuaded Marie Koopmans-De Wet to attend a dinner in honour of President F.W. Reitz of the Orange Free State. After the death of her husband Mrs Koopmans-De Wet, an influential lady in Cape social life, would not be seen at any kind of public occasion. However, Graaff, his good friend David C. de Waal, then mayor of Cape Town, and Justice J.G. Kotzé convinced the respected widow to accept the invitation to the reception in Cape Town.1
Shortly afterwards Graaff succeeded De Waal as mayor. A mere 31 years old, he was already one of the most prosperous businessmen when he was elected to that office on 14 August 1890. He was proposed by former mayor, John Woodhead and
