Sir David Pieter de Villiers Graaff, 1st Baronet (30 March 1859 – 13 April 1931) was a South African cold storage magnate and politician.

At the time Cape Town was the largest and best developed settlement in southern Africa and served as a major logistics center for prospectors.

[1]: 25–27 In 1895, in Cape Town itself the Graaff Electric Lighting Works had begun to operate when a power station was erected near the Molteno reservoir on Table Mountain.

[3][4] The Graaff part of the name refers to David Pieter de Villers-Graaff (created Sir in 1911) who was between 1891 and 1892 Mayor of Cape Town and convinced that the future of electricity was a very "bright" one.

The demand for "light" continued and in 1907 the Municipality of Kalk Bay and Muizenberg to supply their customers, built a power station near the beach.

Graaff left office to focus growing his business and in 1899 he and his brother founded the Imperial Cold Storage and Supply Company.

[citation needed] During the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902), Graaff obtained lucrative contracts to supply the British Army in the field, but he also made substantial donations towards alleviating the suffering of Boer prisoners of war, and providing medical supplies to Boer women and children held in British Army concentration camps.

He bought the farm De Grendel in Plattekloof, outside Cape Town, where he built up a Friesland cattle stud as well as his beloved Arabian horses.

When Sir David died in 1931, his estate was consolidated into one company, Graaff's Trust, one of the largest land owners in South Africa.

[9] Apart from his political career his most notable achievements were the construction of the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway, which the family still part own today, as well as large mining and later property interests and investments.

His beach house Zonnekus on Woodbridge Island, was built by Italian artisans and the material was shipped to South Africa during the great depression.