Commissioner-General, noun
- Forms:
- Also with small initials.
- Origin:
- English, Dutch, AfrikaansShow more English; in sense 2, probably translation of Dutch commissaris-generaal; in sense 3, probably translation of Afrikaans kommissaris-generaal.
historical
1. [English] An officer of the imperial British government appointed to regulate and expedite legal and military procedures in the outlying frontier regions of the Cape Colony.
- Note:
- Created in 1828, the office was abolished again in 1834.
a1864 A. Stockenstrom in C.W. Hutton Autobiog. of Late Sir Andries Stockenstrom (1887) I. 431I had been..Commissioner-General of the Eastern Province.
1989 Reader’s Digest Illust. Hist. of S. Afr. 106Andries Stockenström, a former landdrost of Graaff-Reinet and Commissioner-General for the Eastern Districts.
2. An officer appointed by the Dutch East India Company during the Dutch rule at the Cape of Good Hope to report on agricultural and social conditions and administrative and revenue matters; Commissary General.
1920 K.M. Jeffreys tr. of Memorandum of Commissary J.A. de Mist 161The Indian Government in Holland has remained ignorant of the good effects which have resulted from the various reforms which the Commissioners-General brought into operation at the Cape.
1975 C.G. Henning Graaff-Reinet 20On the 21 February 1803, the British Administration handed over control of the Cape Colony to the Batavian Republic, with J.A. de Mist as Commissioner-General until the 25th September 1804 and Lieutenant-General J.W. Jansens as Governor.
3. An official appointed by the South African government in terms of the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959 to head the administration of a Black ‘homeland’ in the period leading up to independence.
1959 Act 46 in Stat. of Union 516A commissioner-general shall represent the Government with the national unit..and shall in relation to that unit — (a) furnish guidance and advice in respect of all matters affecting administrative development and the social, educational, economic and general progress of the population; (b) promote the development of the administration of justice and of courts of law.
1986 P. Maylam Hist. of Afr. People 167The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act..proclaimed the existence of eight African ‘national units’...A white commissioner-general was to be appointed to each unit as the South African government’s official representatives.
An officer of the imperial British government appointed to regulate and expedite legal and military procedures in the outlying frontier regions of the Cape Colony.
An officer appointed by the Dutch East India Company during the Dutch rule at the Cape of Good Hope to report on agricultural and social conditions and administrative and revenue matters; Commissary General.
An official appointed by the South African government in terms of the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959 to head the administration of a Black ‘homeland’ in the period leading up to independence.
- Derivatives:
- Hence (sense 3) Commissioner-Generalship noun, the office of Commissioner-General.1970 News/Check 29 May 4The appointment of Natal NP leader Henry Torlage to the commissioner-generalship of the Zulus.
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