the esteem in which his shrewdness in both farming and legal affairs was held led to his election to the volksraad as member for wakkerstroom early in the sixties, marthinus pretorius being then in his second term of office as president. in 1870 joubert was again elected, and the use to which he put his slender stock of legal knowledge secured him the appointment of attorney-general of the republic, while in 1875 he acted as president during the absence of t. f. burgers in europe.