Early parliamentary career (1890–1899)

He was initially a supporter of Prime Minister Cecil John Rhodes, but after the "Logan Scandal" in 1893 revealed the degree of corruption in Rhodes's business dealings, Molteno left his government and immediately joined the opposition. From then on he became increasingly suspicious of Rhodes for what he considered his unscrupulous craving for power.

Capture of Leander Starr Jameson by the Boers, after his failed 1896 raid. The raid turned out to have been secretly engineered by Cecil Rhodes – a fact known by Molteno from the beginning.

When the Jameson Raid took place, Molteno immediately accused Rhodes of engineering it, calling Leander Starr Jameson a "fool". He wrote that the raid was the beginning of the divide between Boer and British that would eventually culminate in the Boer War.

In 1899, he organised and chaired a commission to draw up a petition to Queen Victoria, from anti-War politicians and intellectuals of Southern Africa, stressing the seriousness of the impending conflict. It included key information that was not disclosed to London by the British High Commissioner in South Africa, Sir Alfred Milner, who was intent on taking the Cape to war. Consequently Milner avoided delivering it. Molteno then used his family connections to take the petition – as well as Milner's private statements on his warlike intentions – to the British press and parliament, causing great embarrassment to Milner and the Colonial establishment in South Africa.

Molteno was an exceptionally skilled debater and public speaker. In parliament however, he quickly gained a reputation as a jovial tease, with an uncanny ability to both foment and soothe disagreements in the house – while all the time taking an amused backseat. His friends and colleagues in parliament gave him the nickname "Baby Molteno", as he was the youngest of his extended family to be politically active at the time.

The Boer War and its aftermath (1899–1908)

Anglo-Boer War prisoner transit camp on Green point common, Cape Town.

When War broke out, Molteno chaired the anti-war South Africa Conciliation Committee in Cape Town. Like his brother (and fellow MP) John Molteno Jr., he was a fierce critic of the malpractices that took place in the Cape under British martial law, and regularly smuggled evidence of them out of the country via his family connections, to sympathetic MPs in the British House of Commons. In fact, on many occasions he recklessly flouted martial law, seemingly without fear of repercussions, possibly because of the influence of these same connections.

He even went so far as to act as the legal counsel for the so-called "Cape rebels", successfully defending them from the charge of high treason in a series of high-profile military tribunals set up across the country, over a period of 2 years. He then joined several other powerful politicians in successfully fighting the attempt to suspend the Cape's constitution, managing once again to bypass martial law and travel to the Imperial Conference in London to do so.^[5][6]

When democratic government finally resumed in 1902 and Molteno cheerfully re-entered parliament, his arrival provoked a storm of controversy. Some parliamentarians hailed him as a hero; others saw him as a type of terrorist. After his first move of supporting an inquiry into the excesses of military rule, he went on to chair a number of committees and was at the centre of the work to re-establish parliamentary governance.^[7]

As a leader of the opposition, his outspoken criticism and sharp repartee was a constant thorn in the side of the Jameson government. At this time, as the next election (1907/8) was approaching, Molteno was exceptionally active and led nationwide campaigns for the election of his old friend and liberal ally John X. Merriman, making hundreds of speeches across the country. The effort paid off and the election was a resounding victory for Merriman and Molteno's "South African Party".^[8][9][10]

Molteno was a strong proponent of women's suffrage and, on 4 July 1907, together with fellow MPs J.W. Sauer and Dr Antonie Viljoen, made the first parliamentary attempt to give women (of all races) the right to vote, in the last session before the new government. In the long and bitter parliamentary debate that ensued, which Molteno later described as the most painful of his career, Merriman himself joined the parliamentary majority in opposing women's suffrage and the motion was eventually defeated.^[11][12]

Speaker of the Cape Colony Parliament (1908–1910)

Map of southern Africa just prior to Union. The Cape Colony is shaded red, the Boer republics orange.

After the elections of 1908, when the Merriman government came to power, Molteno was the unanimous choice as Speaker.

As Speaker of Parliament, Molteno abandoned his jovially anarchic style of politics, and became solemn and decisive. With the political storms of the Boer War and the upcoming Union, controlling Parliamentary procedure was a challenge. The Cape House had also more than doubled in size since its creation and was considerably more politically diverse. It was therefore essential to wield a firm and detached authority over sessions that were often very raucous. However, remaining aloof and serious seemed to have sometimes been a challenge for Molteno. Parliamentary writer Ralph Kilpin found the contradictory Speaker rather amusing, and described in his book, The Old Cape House, how Molteno once firmly silenced disruptive parliamentarians who were roaring with laughter in the backbenches, only to whisper audibly to the culprit as he passed the Speaker's seat later: "You can tell me the joke afterwards" ^[13]

In 1909, at the Prime Minister's request, he joined the South African delegation as legal adviser, and submitted the draft South Africa Act at the National Convention in London. This was in spite of his voicing considerable problems with many of its provisions, particularly those pertaining to franchise.

The South African Parliament building in Cape Town

First Speaker of the South African Parliament (1910–1915)

Nevertheless, when the new Union House of Assembly was created, Molteno, now representing the constituency of Ceres, was asked to take up his office again, having defeated the Transvaal's candidate for Speaker, General C.F. Beyers. He thus became the first Speaker of the South African Parliament. In the ensuing year, he was responsible for compiling the initial rules of procedure for Parliament, as well as the constitution of the Empire Parliamentary Association, of which he was president.^[14]

In 1911, he led the South African Parliamentary Delegation to London for the coronation of King George V.

He was knighted in the same year.^[15][16]