He was appointed Prime Minister in 1872, and in turn appointed the young John X. Merriman as his commissioner of public works (Merriman himself was later to become the 8th Prime Minister of the Cape and in that capacity continued many of Molteno's policies).

Molteno began his ministry by re-organising the state finances.
One of his government's first acts was to abolish the controversial house tax (Act 11 of 1872).
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.
He also oversaw a revival in the agricultural sector, and began the construction of a vast irrigation system across the country.
The economy recovered, as new ports and shipping services helped the surge in exports, resulting in reasonable budget surpluses by the end of his tenure.
He led the (now prosperous) Cape colony in the Ninth Frontier War when it broke out in 1877, and he strongly resisted regional factionalism – going to great lengths to heal the rifts between the eastern and western halves of the Cape and blocking attempts by his political opponents to racially segregate the armed forces.

His government also founded the University of the Cape of Good Hope, now one of the world's mega-universities with over 200,000 students, and Victoria College (later to become Stellenbosch University).
In 1874 he established a system of government grants to build libraries in towns and villages across the country.
Later known as the "Molteno Regulations", they were an immense success and were later adopted by neighbouring countries.

The Molteno Ministry was characterised by its stout opposition to imperial interference in Cape affairs, for example, quashing a bid to forcefully incorporate Griqualand West and opposing Frere's later deployment of imperial troops against the Xhosa.

Importantly, the system of responsible government as instituted under Molteno retained the traditional Cape system of non-racial franchise – whereby all races could vote, quite unlike the situation in the rest of Southern Africa.
He was appointed Prime Minister in 1872, and in turn appointed the young John X. Merriman as his commissioner of public works (Merriman himself was later to become the 8th Prime Minister of the Cape and in that capacity continued many of Molteno's policies).
Molteno began his ministry by re-organising the state finances. One of his government's first acts was to abolish the controversial house tax (Act 11 of 1872). 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. He also oversaw a revival in the agricultural sector, and began the construction of a vast irrigation system across the country. The economy recovered, as new ports and shipping services helped the surge in exports, resulting in reasonable budget surpluses by the end of his tenure. He led the (now prosperous) Cape colony in the Ninth Frontier War when it broke out in 1877, and he strongly resisted regional factionalism – going to great lengths to heal the rifts between the eastern and western halves of the Cape and blocking attempts by his political opponents to racially segregate the armed forces.
His government also founded the University of the Cape of Good Hope, now one of the world's mega-universities with over 200,000 students, and Victoria College (later to become Stellenbosch University). In 1874 he established a system of government grants to build libraries in towns and villages across the country. Later known as the "Molteno Regulations", they were an immense success and were later adopted by neighbouring countries.
The Molteno Ministry was characterised by its stout opposition to imperial interference in Cape affairs, for example, quashing a bid to forcefully incorporate Griqualand West and opposing Frere's later deployment of imperial troops against the Xhosa.
Importantly, the system of responsible government as instituted under Molteno retained the traditional Cape system of non-racial franchise – whereby all races could vote, quite unlike the situation in the rest of Southern Africa.
John Charles Molteno