He was born in Cape Town, educated at the South African College, and at an early age turned his attention to politics, first as a journalist.

His control over the Bond enabled him for many years, while free from the responsibilities of office, to make and unmake ministers at his will, and earned for him the name of Cabinet-maker of South Africa.

[1] His preference for working behind the scenes and avoiding overt political stands earned him another nickname, "the Mole" (described by John X Merriman as "an industrious little animal .

The sympathies of the Bond were thus always strongly with the Transvaal, as the chief centre of Dutch influence in South Africa; and Hofmeyr's position might in many respects be compared with that of Parnell at the head of the Irish Nationalist party in Great Britain.

He resented the reckless disregard of Cape interests involved in Kruger's fiscal policy; he feared that the Transvaal, after its sudden leap into prosperity upon the gold discoveries of 1886, might overshadow all other Dutch influences in South Africa; above all he was convinced, as he showed by his action at the London conference, that the protection of the British navy was indispensable to South Africa, and he set his face against Kruger's intrigues with Germany, and his avowed intention of acquiring an outlet to the sea in order to get into touch with foreign powers.

Hofmeyr's influence was a powerful factor in the conclusion of the Swaziland convention of 1890, as well as in stopping the trek to Banyailand (Rhodesia) in 1891, a notable reversal of the policy he had pursued seven years before.

By an alteration of the provincial constitution, all power in the Cape branch of the Bond was vested in the hands of a vigilance committee of three, of whom Hofmeyr and his brother were two.