Gysbert Reitz Hofmeyr (12 February 1871 – 12 March 1942) was a South African civil servant and the first Administrator of South West Africa (now Namibia) under the League of Nations Mandate. As secretary for the Transvaal delegation to the National Convention in 1908–1909, Hofmeyr was a witness to the unification of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and Orange River colonies. The new Union of South Africa became a self-governing dominion of the British Empire in 1910. Hofmeyr continued close to power as clerk of the new Union government's House of Assembly from 1910 to 1920. He published numerous political writings calling for greater unity between the English and Dutch inhabitants of South Africa.Newspaper report Rand Daily Mail 30 March 1908
In 1920 Hofmeyr was appointed as the first Administrator of South West Africa under the League of Nations Mandate by Jan Smuts (then Prime Minister of South Africa). As Administrator Hofmeyr strongly encouraged white settlers from the Union and introduced numerous measures designed to ensure that the local Black and Coloured inhabitants would work for the white settlers. Historian John Wellington's view is that in doing so Hofmeyr failed to “promote to the utmost the material and moral well-being and social progress of the inhabitants of the territory” as required under the League of Nations Mandate.
Hofmeyr's actions during the Bondelswarts Rebellion in 1922, described by Ruth First as "the Sharpeville of the 1920s", were controversial, especially the use of warplanes, aerial bombs and strafing against lightly armed Blacks. He was criticized by the Permanent Mandates Commission report into the Bondelswarts affair. Although the report held that Hofmeyr had "acted wisely in taking prompt steps to uphold government authority", it found that the repression of the uprising was "carried out with excessive severity".
Hofmeyr stood for election to the Parliament of South Africa for the Riversdale constituency in 1929 but lost to a nationalist opponent who taunted him about his Bondelswarts misjudgements.Affidavit by GR Hofmeyr in Hofmeyr v Badenhorst, Cape Supreme Court 1932 Hofmeyr sued the opponent for libel and ultimately won the case,Judgement in Hofmeyr v Badenhorst, Cape Supreme Court 1932 but the loss at the election effectively ended Hofmeyr's political career.
Early years Hofmeyr was the third son and fifth child born to Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr (born in Cape Town in 1835, died in Riversdale in 1923) and Christina Jacoba van Zyl (born in 1838, died in Riversdale in 1921), Afrikaners who farmed in Riversdale in the British Cape Colony.
Hofmeyr worked on the family farm while growing up and only had three or four years of formal education. In 1895 Hofmeyr married Ydie Louise Dankwertz Nel (born in Somerset East in 1872, died in Cape Town in 1943) in Oudtshoorn. Ydie was the daughter of PAPJ Nel of Bruintes Hoogte, Somerset East.
Early career Civil service and education In 1890, at the age of nineteen, Hofmeyr entered the Cape Civil Service. His first appointment was in the Lands and Deeds Office at King William's Town. Later that year Hofmeyr became Magistrate's Clerk at Oudtshoorn, and he was subsequently attached to the Circuit Court and to various magistracies in the Cape Colony. Entering the Attorney-General's office, and after passing the relevant internal examinations, Hofmeyr acted as Civil Commissioner and Resident Magistrate at Oudtshoorn in 1894, and later in Malmesbury and then Stellenbosch.
In Stellenbosch he studied after hours at Victoria College. Victoria College (originally Stellenbosch College, now Stellenbosch University) had been renamed in 1887 when it acquired university status. Although later in the 20th century Stellenbosch University became a centre of strident Afrikaner nationalism, in the years that Hofmeyr was there Victoria College was a liberal institution staffed largely by Lowland Scottish "brither Presbyterians".
In 1895 the Crown colony of British Bechuanaland, the southern part of the Bechuanaland Protectorate), was incorporated into the Cape Colony. The northern part remained a British Protectorate until its independence as Botswana in 1966). Hofmeyr was selected to move to Vryburg and Mafeking to assist in assimilating the system of administration there with that in the Cape Colony. This early experience of assisting the incorporation of British Bechuanaland into the Cape influenced his later thinking that a natural progression for South West Africa would be integration into South Africa.
Early political influences
Hofmeyr's father was a cousin of Jan Henrik Hofmeyr, known as "Onze Jan" — a prominent politician and member of the Cape parliament for Stellenbosch from 1879 to 1909. The political activities of both Onze Jan Hofmeyr and Jan Smuts made a deep impression on Gysbert Reitz Hofmeyr, and the younger Hofmeyr decided to move closer to the corridors of power. Writing to Mr A Brink of Kimberley on 3 April 1919, Hofmeyr stated that "even making due allowance for anyone being impelled by blood relationship to a zealous veneration for the memory of a great kinsman, I venture to say that the considered verdict of the country as a whole will endorse my view that the late Onze Jan was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, statesman and patriots South Africa has produced".Letter GR Hofmeyr to A Brink, Kimberley, dated 3 April 1919, in South African National Archives, GR Hofmeyr Collection
Cape and Transvaal parliamentary roles (1897–1907) In 1897 Hofmeyr became Private Secretary to Dr Thomas Te Water, the Colonial Secretary of the Cape, and then later that year the Clerk Assistant to the Cape House of Assembly. In 1900 Hofmeyr was given the additional role of Registrar of the Special Tribunals Court, and in 1904 was promoted to become the Clerk of the Cape House of Assembly. In 1907 he transferred to the Transvaal Colony, becoming the first Clerk to its House of Assembly upon the formation of its Parliament under responsible government in March 1907.
Early writing Het Zuid-Afrikaanse Jaarboek (1905–1907) From 1905 Hofmeyr was co-proprietor (with CG Murray) and editor of the annually produced Het Zuid-Afrikaanse Jaarboek en Algemeene Gids. Although the journal was presented only in Dutch, and Hofmeyr was based in Cape Town, the journal provided information on not only the Cape Colony but on all of the other British colonies and protectorates in Southern Africa too - the Transvaal Colony, the Orange River Colony, the Colony of Natal, Southern Rhodesia, and on occasion Basutoland (now Lesotho) and the Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana). In similar vein, the calendar listed both the British King Edward VII's Birthday on 9 November and the Dingaan's Day on 16 December (a day commemorating the victory of 470 Voortrekkers over 20,000 Zulus).
The journal presented a civil servant's view of the world, providing a plethora of useful information. It included a calendar, replete with holy days and public holidays, school holidays in each colony, phases of the moon, times of sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset, tide tables and selected references to the Old Testament. Postal rates and money order details were provided. There were calculation tables showing the result of interest rates from 2.5% to 9% on different amounts over different periods in pounds, shillings and pence, tables showing how much different annual sums would provide on a monthly, weekly and daily basis, tables showing the cost of various licences, and tables showing the number of different types of sheep in each district.
Longer articles described the process for the administration of estates in each colony. Census results were listed, showing the breakdown of inhabitants (split into European/ Fingo/ Maleiers/ Hottentot/ Gemengd/ Amaxosa, Zulu and other tribes), church affiliation and populations by town. The Constitution of each colony was set out (including Swaziland (now Eswatini). Members of parliament for each colony were listed, as were civil servants, attorneys and priests. The public debt and annual budget of the Cape Colony was made available. Certain laws were reproduced: irrigation and water laws, hunting laws, legislation providing for half holidays for shopworkers, insolvency laws, workman's compensation laws, agricultural laws, public health laws.
Import and export figures were provided for each colony; the largest exports were gold, diamonds, wool and ostrich feathers. Two thirds of imports were from Great Britain, and almost all exports were to Great Britain. Import tariffs and railway tariffs were presented (including the rule that a short railtruck was permitted to transport no more than 16 ostriches at a time).
The journal carried adverts for banks, food suppliers, hotels, furniture shops, auctioneers, schools (with St. Andrew's College, Grahamstown trumpeting its exclusive annual Rhodes Scholarship), wagons, carriages (no cars), ploughs and other farm machinery, and lastly for "Dr Williams' Pink Pills" (which were advertised as an antidote for almost all known ailments). The journal was not produced after 1907.
Closer Union of the South African Colonies (1908) Hofmeyr became increasingly involved in the intellectual debate surrounding the proposed union of the British colonies and protectorates of Southern Africa.
In October 1907 Hofmeyr corresponded with Thomas Barnard Flint, Clerk of the House of Commons of Canada, in relation to the successes of federation in Canada.Letter TB Flint to GR Hofmeyr dated 29 October 1907, in South African National Archives, GR Hofmeyr Collection Flint recommended that South Africa look at the Canadian example, and use the same language relating to federations to allow it to take advantage of existing judicial determinations.
In 1908 Hofmeyr published a pamphlet entitled Closer Union of the South African Colonies, in both English and Dutch. Hofmeyr regarded unification as the best scheme for the needs of the sub-continent but argued (on the strength of his Canadian correspondent) that some measure of federation must precede the bolder unification plan. Hofmeyr suggested that the Orange River Colony take over Basutoland and that the Transvaal be responsible for Swaziland.
Public reaction to the pamphlet was swift. On 24 February 1908 a leader in the Transvaal Weekly complimented Hofmeyr for giving a "useful lead to other minds exercised in the same direction" and his "endeavour to form the basis of a constructive policy which must initiate all genuine progress".Newspaper report Transvaal Weekly, Leader 22 February 1908 The leader believed that union would be the "more effective and expeditious agency in completing the cementing process between the two great white races of South Africa and by a "pooling of the best brains of the two peoples". Hofmeyr argued that "the surrender of local self-government and prejudice must occur gradually" – but the leader criticised this as too timid and lacking boldness. The leader states, "a precarious stepping-stone (federation) is poor security, and liable to submersion when most wanted. Why not build a permanent bridge straightway of guaranteed strength and safety. This is unification".
In March 1908 Hofmeyr received a letter from Marinus Houman (1848–1915), a Dutch-American architect who had been reading the articles on Closer Union in the Transvaal Weekly. Houman advised against federation as it would not meet the aim of an independent united South Africa.Letter M Houman to GR Hofmeyr dated 31 March 1908, in SA National Archives, GR Hofmeyr collection Houman's advice was to not leave a "shred of autonomy or independence to any part of your country", and to frame the body politic so that "an injury of one will be the concern of all, i.e. that England cannot injure one part without injuring the whole".