Dirk Gysbert van Breda
# Dirk Gysbert van Breda

Dirk Gysbertus van Reenen van Breda (5 May 1803 – 14 November 1870) was a South African public official, farmer and twice Mayor of Cape Town.

## Biography

Van Breda was born in Cape Town, the second son of the first mayor of Cape Town, Michiel van Breda and his first wife, Catharina Geesje van Reenen. He married Susanna Hendrina Wilhelmina Meyer on 9 September 1828 in Cape Town.

In 1839 he bought the farms Rietfontein and Buffeljagt in the Swellendam district, where he farmed mainly with merino sheep. After his father's death in 1847, and in 1851, van Breda bought the two properties, Oranjezicht and Oudekraal from the deceased estate. Van Breda was a shrewd and intelligent farmer and was a member of the Legislative Council of the Cape Colony’s first elected parliament and a Cape Town municipal commissioner. In 1860 he became chairman of the Municipal Board of Cape Town, effectively the role of Mayor. He fulfilled the role for only one year, but between 1865 and 1866, served a second term as Mayor, being the first to do so.

Unfortunately, two of his sons, Dirk Gysbert and the younger Pieter Johannes Albertus, did not inherit their father's good nature. Both were known for their violent and abusive behaviour towards slaves and even their own wives and barely six months after their father's death they both killed their wives.

Dirk Gysbert van Reenen van Breda died on his farm, Oranjezicht on 11 November 1870.

