Graaff-Reinet is a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is the fourth oldest town in South Africa, after Cape Town, Stellenbosch, and Swellendam.HistoryThe town was founded by the VOC in 1786, being named after the then governor of Cape Colony, Cornelis Jacob van de Graaff, and his wife, whose maiden name was "Reinet".In 1795, the burghers, smarting under the exactions of the VOC, and under the leadership of Adriaan van Jaarsveld, expelled the Landdrost Maynier and proclaimed an independent "Colony of Graaff-Reinet," requesting guardianship under the government in the Netherlands . Similar action was subsequently taken by the burghers of Swellendam. Claims that the two "independent" regions wanted to be independent republics were found to be untrue. Before the authorities at Cape Town could take decisive measures against the rebels, they were themselves compelled to capitulate to the British who invaded and occupied the Cape. The burghers having endeavoured, unsuccessfully, to get aid from a French warship at Algoa Bay surrendered to Colonel JO Vandeleur.In January 1799, Marthinus Prinsloo, a leader of the independent movement in 1795, again rebelled, but surrendered in April following. Prinsloo and nineteen others were imprisoned in Cape Town castle. After trial, Prinsloo and another commandant were sentenced to death and others to banishment. The sentences were not carried out and the prisoners were released, March 1803, on the retrocession of the Cape to the Netherlands. In February 1803, in terms of the Treaty of Amiens signed in 1802, the British returned the Cape Colony to the Netherlands, then renamed the Batavian Republic.
