Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr (Onze Jan)
| Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Minister without portfolio | |
|
In office May 1881 – November 1881 |
|
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | Thomas Charles Scanlen |
| Governor | Hercules Robinson |
| Member of the Cape House of Assembly for Stellenbosch | |
|
In office 1879 – 11 October 1909 |
|
| Monarch |
Victoria Edward VII |
| Prime Minister |
Sir John Gordon Sprigg Thomas Charles Scanlen Thomas Upington Sir John Gordon Sprigg Cecil Rhodes Sir John Gordon Sprigg William Philip Schreiner Sir John Gordon Sprigg Leander Starr Jameson John X. Merriman |
| Governor |
Sir William Gordon Cameron Hercules Robinson Sir William Howley Goodenough Alfred Milner Sir William Francis Butler Sir Walter Hely-Hutchinson |
| Constituency | Stellenbosch |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 4 July 1845 Cape Town, Cape Colony |
| Died | 11 October 1909 Westminster, London, United Kingdom |
| Resting place |
Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa |
| Political party | Afrikaner Bond |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Profession | Journalist |
Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr (4 July 1845 – 11 October 1909), South African politician affectionately known as Onze Jan, "our Jan" in Dutch.
He was born in Cape Town, educated at the South African College, and at an early age turned his attention to politics, first as a journalist.
He was editor of de Zuid-Afrikaan until its incorporation with Ons Land, and of the Zuid Afrikaansche Tijdschrift. By birth, education and sympathies a typical Dutch Afrikaner, he set himself to organize the political power of his fellow-countrymen. This he did very effectively, and when in 1879 he entered the Cape parliament as member for Stellenbosch, he became the real leader of the Dutch party. Yet he only held office for six months—as minister without portfolio in the Scanlen ministry from May to November 1881. He held no subsequent official post in the colony, though he shared with Sir Thomas Upington and Sir Charles Mills the honor of representing the Cape at the intercolonial conference of 1887. Here he supported the proposal for entrusting the defence of Simon's Town to Cape Colony, leaving only the armament to be provided by the imperial government, opposed trans-oceanic penny postage and moved a resolution in favor of an imperial customs union. At the Colonial Conference of 1894 at Ottawa he was again one of the Cape representatives. In 1888 and in 1889, he was a member of the South African customs conference.
His chief importance as a public man was, however, derived from his power over the Dutch in Cape Colony, and his control of the Afrikaner Bond. But it remained an organization for obtaining the political supremacy of the Cape Dutch. His control over the Bond enabled him for many years, while free from the responsibilities of office, to make and unmake ministers at his will, and earned for him the name of Cabinet-maker of South Africa. His preference for working behind the scenes and avoiding overt political stands earned him another nickname, "the Mole" (described by John X Merriman as "an industrious little animal . . . You never see him at work, but every now and then a little mound of earth, thrown up here or there, will testify to his activities.")
...
Wikipedia