Sir John Charles Molteno[needs English IPA] KCMG (Italian: [molˈteːno];[1] 5 June 1814 – 1 September 1886) was a politician and businessman who served as the first Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1872 to 1878.

Disposing of the remains of his mercantile businesses, he immediately bought some land in the arid Beaufort area and successfully introduced Saxon Merino sheep, building up the vast Nelspoort Estate.

However, in spite of the elected parliament, executive power remained firmly in the hands of a British Governor, appointed by London, meaning that the country was run primarily according to Britain's interests, rather than southern Africa's.

Molteno's experiences fighting in the frontier wars had given him a contempt for what he saw as the incompetence and injustice of British imperial rule in Southern Africa, as well as a lifelong belief in the need for efficient and locally-accountable democracy.

From his first entry into parliament, he therefore began a long political battle to make the Cape's Executive democratically accountable (or "responsible" as it was known), and thus to give the country a degree of independence from Britain.

In the 1860s the autocratic British Governor Philip Wodehouse made repeated attempts to dismantle the few elected bodies the Cape had, and assume direct control over the colony.

Finally in 1872, with the consent of the new Governor Sir Henry Barkly, Molteno saw the decisive bill through parliament and brought the Cape Colony's government under local control for the first time.

He used the new revenues from the diamond and ostrich feather industries to pay off the Cape's accumulated debts and to invest heavily in infrastructure, including a telegraph system and an ambitious railway building programme.

[9] A change of government in London led to a pro-imperialist lobby headed by Secretary of State, Lord Carnarvon, determined to bring all of southern Africa into the British Empire by enforcing a confederation onto the region.

Frere was a formidable administrator of the British Empire but had scant experience of southern Africa and the confederation scheme soon fell apart, leaving a trail of wars across the region as predicted, including long-running conflicts with the Xhosa, Pedi and Basotho nations.

After the disastrous British invasion of Zululand and rising discontent in the Transvaal (that later exploded as the First Boer War), Frere was recalled to London to face charges of misconduct in 1880.

Molteno was repeatedly asked to form a government again, however (by now in his late sixties) he declined and chose to retire from public life to spend time with his family.

[15] His strongest political opponents on the other hand, accused him of being fierce, stubborn, and too much influenced by Saul Solomon (a liberal MP whom Molteno held in high regard).