 At that very moment Rhodes was preparing to take drastic action to create his South African federation.Unlike Hofmeyr, content to allow matters to develop at their own pace, trusting that the seventy-year-old Kruger and his obstructive policies would not last much longer, Rhodes feared that the growing wealth of the Transvaal would give them the decisive voice in any future union negotiations.Unlike Kruger, Rhodes was not an elderly man but his health was now too uncertain to allow him to be patient – not if he wished to see his ambitions fulfilled during his lifetime.