David Graaff

Sir David Pieter de Villiers Graaff, 1st Baronet (30 March 1859 – 13 April 1931) was a South African cold storage magnate and politician. Graaff revolutionized the cold storage industry in Africa. He founded the Imperial Cold Storage and Supply Company in 1899, and aggressively ran it until he left to serve in government. Graaff grew the company into one of the largest in Africa. Graaff's wealth soared, at the turn of the century. During World War I he personally part financed the South African war effort and for this he was knighted as well as for services at the Paris Peace Conference 1919.

Early life Imperial Cold Storage and Supply Company was founded by Graaff and his brother Jacobus in 1899. David Graaff was the fourth child of Petrus Novbertus Graaff and Anna Elisabeth. He was born in the small town of Villiersdorp, named after his maternal grandfather, Pieter Hendrik de Villiers, who founded the town in 1841. Little is known of his early childhood other than that his family was very poor. In 1870, at the age of eleven, he went to work in his great-uncle's butchery, Combrinck & CO., in Cape Town, while being privately educated. His great-uncle, Jacobus Arnoldus Combrinck, hoped that Graaff would take over his successful butchery so that he could enter colony politics. ). One year later, in 1882, the first commercially successful shipment of refrigerated meat arrived in London from Australia on board the Dunedin. Graaff, realizing the importance of this technological innovation for his butchery business, spent much of the 1880s extensively traveling around the world. Learning all he could about the meat markets and abattoirs of the United Kingdom as well as the meat packing plants of Chicago and the rest of United States. He spent much of the rest of the 1880s and 1890s implementing the techniques and technologies he learned from these trips in his businesses in addition to serving in government. The Graaff part of the name refers to David Pieter de Villers-Graaff (created Sir in 1911) who was between 1891 and 1892 Mayor of Cape Town and convinced that the future of electricity was a very "bright" one. The demand for "light" continued and in 1907 the Municipality of Kalk Bay and Muizenberg to supply their customers, built a power station near the beach. A year or so later in 1908 the Woodstock Municipality received their electricity supply from the Dock Road Power Station. Then in 1912 the Cape Town City Council bought the assets of the Claremont Electric Light Works and became the suppliers of both the city and the suburbs.

Boer War years Graaff left office to focus growing his business and in 1899 he and his brother founded the Imperial Cold Storage and Supply Company. The company grew into one of the largest meat processing and distribution companies in the world and was responsible for generating much of Graaff's fortune. They concentrated on supplying ships, and in conjunction with the Union and Castle shipping lines, they developed the first cold-storage enterprise in South Africa. the first prime minister of the Union of South Africa, he was created a baronet in 1911 and served as Minister of Public Works and of Posts and Telegraphs (1911–1912), Minister without Portfolio (1912–1913), High Commissioner in London for Union of South Africa (1914) and Minister of Finance (1915–1916). He was a Member of House of Assembly for the Union of South Africa from 1910 to 1920.

He accompanied Botha to the Versailles peace conference in 1919. He was also a close confidant of Gen Jan Smuts and Winston Churchill. He was a member of the National Liberal Club.

Apart from his political career his most notable achievements were the construction of the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, which the family still part own today, as well as large mining and later property interests and investments. His trademark mansions are still scattered around Cape Town today. His beach house Zonnekus on Woodbridge Island, was built by Italian artisans and the material was shipped to South Africa during the great depression. Previously he had built De Grendel, an 8000 hectare stud farm where he bred prized Arab horses. The tombstone of Sir David P. Graaff at De Grendel in Cape Town, South Africa. He was succeeded as baronet by his eldest son De Villiers. He was also survived by his youngest son, Johannes, a noted Welfare Economist.

Along with other Cape politicians, Graaff is depicted in the 1899 artwork Holiday Time in Cape Town by James Ford.