David Christiaan de Waal

From 1884 to 1903 he represented the constituency of Piketberg in the Cape Legislative Assembly and played an important part in securing a railway-line to Piketberg. He was also a member of the Cape Town City Council from 1877 to 1895 and mayor from 1889 to 1890. During his tenure as mayor, he focused on beautifying the city, specifically with the planting of a large number of oak and blue gum trees. In recognition of this, the city council, in 1895, named the area next to the Molteno Reservoir, which was laid out and planted, De Waal Park.^[3]

During the 1880s, De Waal travelled extensively, visiting Western Europe, the Middle East and North America. His travels provided De Waal with material for his writing and he wrote several articles that appeared in Dutch-language publications at the Cape.^[1]

De Waal married Hester Sophia Hofmeyr, the sister of Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr, of Welgemeend, Cape Town in 1869. There were four sons and three daughters born of the marriage. Two of the sons became prominent member of the community, the elder, Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr de Waal, became speaker of the Union parliament, and the other, Pieter de Waal, a clergyman of the Dutch Reformed Church.

In 1903, he retired from politics due to ill health, after which his health gradually deteriorated and he became, after a number of strokes, an invalid during his last years of life. He died on 22 September 1909 at his home 'Rozenberg' in Claremont, where he had been living from 1903.^[4]