Jacobus Graaff, younger brother of Sir David Graaff, was born on the Wolfhuiskloof farm near Villiersdorp in 1863. Following his father"s death in 1875, he left Villiersdorp to work with his brother David at the Combrinck & Company butchery in Cape Town.
He was chairman of the Afrikaner Bond"s Cape Town branch and was elected to Legislative Council representing the northwestern Cape in 1903. After the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910, he became a senator From 1913 to 1920, he was minister without portfolio in Louis Botha"s cabinet.
He was minister of public works, posts and telegraphs in January Smuts"s second ministry.
He lived in a large mansion, Bordeaux, on the beach front in Sea Point. Graaff was regarded as an expert on animals as well as an eccentric, earned the moniker "Mal January" (crazy January).
Graaff was buried on his estate in Bellevue, Portervilleweg. He insisted on being buried in a coffin with a glass lid and a working telephone in case he woke from the dead.
