![Sir James Sivewright - May 1902 - Cape Colony](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Sir_James_Sivewright_-_May_1902_-_Cape_Colony.jpg)
Sir James Sivewright K.C.M.G. (1848–10 September 1916) was a businessman and politician of the
Cape Colony
The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
. He was a strong political ally of
Cecil Rhodes and, as his cabinet minister, was implicated in the "Logan" corruption scandal that led to the fall of the first Rhodes government.
Early life
James Sivewright was born in
Fochabers
Fochabers (; gd, Fachabair or Fothabair) is a village in the Parish of Bellie, in Moray, Scotland, east of the cathedral city of Elgin and located on the east bank of the River Spey. 1,728 people live in the village, which enjoys a rich musi ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
.
Graduating from the University of Aberdeen,
[ he entered the British Postal Service and co-authored the ''Textbook in Telegraphy'', a book that became a standard text book on the topic for a considerable time.
]
Telegraphy in the Cape
After he worked in India for its telegraph service, he emigrated to the Cape Colony in 1877 and became the general manager of telegraphy.[ He would retire from the service in 1885.][ The Cape had recently wrested a degree of independence from Britain under the " Responsible Government" system, and its first ]Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
John Molteno was embarking on a massive expansion in the country's infrastructure. Sivewright was one of the telegraphy experts which the Cape government imported to develop a telecommunications system for the country. From 1877 Sivewright helped to plan and construct the telegraphy networks for the Cape Colony, and then, up until 1881 likewise for the Transvaal, the Natal Colony and the Orange Free State.
Politics and Cecil John Rhodes
In 1887 Sivewright became involved in politics, after he joined the Afrikaner Bond
The Afrikaner Bond (Afrikaans and Dutch for "Afrikaner Union"; South African Dutch: Afrikander Bond) was founded as an anti-imperialist political party in 19th century southern Africa. While its origins were largely in the Orange Free State, ...
in Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
, and he was elected as the Bond representative of Griqualand East
Griqualand East (Afrikaans: ''Griekwaland-Oos''), officially known as New Griqualand ( Dutch: ''Nieuw Griqualand''), was one of four short-lived Griqua states in Southern Africa from the early 1860s until the late 1870s and was located between ...
in 1888.[
Subsequently, he became immensely influential as an agent of the rising Imperialist politician Cecil Rhodes, within the Afrikaner Bond. He went on to act as an intermediate between Rhodes, and the Bond leader "Onze Jan" Hofmeyr. As Rhodes's right-hand man, he secured the Bond's support for Rhodes to take power in 1890 and become ]Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
of the Cape.
Throughout his career, Sivewright habitually mixed business and politics. In 1891 he secured an agreement for the Cape Government Railways
The Cape Government Railways (CGR) was the government-owned railway operator in the Cape Colony from 1874 until the creation of the South African Railways (SAR) in 1910.
History Private railways
The first railways at the Cape were privately own ...
, that gave them a 2-year monopoly on traffic to and from the new goldfields of the Transvaal. As a reward, Sivewright received a knighthood
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the ...
.
He also built increasingly powerful links with the principal mining tycoons of southern Africa, such as Barney Barnato. Sivewright's business links gained increasing criticism from opposition politicians who accused him of massive corruption.
The Logan corruption scandal (1892–3)
In 1892, he secured a government contract for his friend and associate James Logan which involved a 15-year monopoly on the catering for the nation's Government-run Railway system.
The deal was immediately discovered, and a collection of the country's most powerful liberal politicians, including JW Sauer
Jacobus Wilhelmus ("J.W.") Sauer (1850 – 24 July 1913), was a prominent liberal politician of the Cape Colony. He served as Minister in multiple Cape governments, and was influential in several unsuccessful attempts to enshrine equal political ...
, John X. Merriman and James Rose-Innes
Sir James Rose Innes (8 January 1855 – 16 January 1942) was the Chief Justice of South Africa from 1914 to 1927 and, in the view of many, its greatest ever judge. Before becoming a judge he was a member of the Cape Parliament, the Cape Col ...
, protested and attacked the deal. Eventually the Rhodes government was forced to cancel the deal, however it nonetheless compensated Logan massively with government money. The liberal politicians then refused to be part of any government that included Sivewright, however Sivewright still had the support of Rhodes and his connections with the Afrikaner Bond which were essential for the maintenance of the Rhodes government.
The surrounding scandal, and the stand-off that it caused, led to the fall of the first Rhodes Government.
Sivewright then moved to act as a discrete and unofficial railway diplomat.
Progressive Party
After the Jameson raid
The Jameson Raid (29 December 1895 – 2 January 1896) was a botched raid against the South African Republic (commonly known as the Transvaal) carried out by British colonial administrator Leander Starr Jameson, under the employment of Cecil ...
split apart the Cape political scene and was subsequently revealed to have been a plot by Cecil Rhodes, the Afrikaner Bond
The Afrikaner Bond (Afrikaans and Dutch for "Afrikaner Union"; South African Dutch: Afrikander Bond) was founded as an anti-imperialist political party in 19th century southern Africa. While its origins were largely in the Orange Free State, ...
finally split with Rhodes, whose second government fell.
Faced with the choice, Sivewright joined the Rhodesian, pro-Imperialist "Progressive Party". The move paid off when Rhodesian Prime Minister Gordon Sprigg
Sir John Gordon Sprigg, (27 April 1830 – 4 February 1913) was an English-born colonial administrator, politician and four-time prime minister of the Cape Colony.
Early life
Sprigg was born in Ipswich, England, into a strongly Puritan fam ...
gained power, and Sivewright was awarded the Commission of Crown Lands and Public Works.
He won a seat for Stellenbosch in 1898, standing as a Progressive, but it was soon discovered that his agents had been bribing voters, and he was consequently deposed.
Later life
Sivewright then traveled back to Britain but nonetheless kept strong political and business links with South Africa. In 1899, he arranged the Bloemfontein Conference, and he had diverse financial interests in southern Africa that he kept for the rest of his life.
His reputation for massive corruption never quite faded, and liberal activist Olive Schreiner
Olive Schreiner (24 March 1855 – 11 December 1920) was a South African author, anti-war campaigner and intellectual. She is best remembered today for her novel ''The Story of an African Farm'' (1883), which has been highly acclaimed. It deal ...
recounts that:
''"when both he (Rhodes) and Sivewright came forward to shake hands, I turned on my heel and went to my house."''
In 1914, he was briefly taken prisoner by the Germans at the beginning of the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, when he was captured while recuperating in Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
.
See also
* Culross mercat cross, on which he is honoured for its restoration
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sivewright, James
Cape Colony politicians
Members of the House of Assembly of the Cape Colony
South African businesspeople
19th-century South African people