Our dear elder, comrade, friend, leader and mentor Mosie Moolla died on 25 March at the age of 88. It was a sad day for all who enjoyed his vibrance, good humour and insight. Here is Moolla's profile from the book Men of Dynamite published by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation.

Moosa "Mosie" Moolla -- revolutionary, leader and democrat -- has over the years paid a heavy price for his beliefs and principles. During the course of his life he was cruelly separated from his children, detained on numerous occasions, faced the chilling prospect of being hanged when tried for treason and spent 28 years in exile.

Mosie was born on 12 June 1934 in the small western Transvaal town of Christiana, where his father ran a successful import-export business. The family was forced to relocate to Bloemhof, a nearby town, following the Great Depression of the 1930s. Mosie did his primary schooling in Bloemhof. Since there were no high schools catering for blacks, Mosie was forced to move to Johannesburg in 1949 to pursue his secondary education.

The exciting developments in national and international politics during this period sparked Mosie's curiosity about current affairs. He recalls the 1946-47 Passive Resistance Campaign against the Ghetto Act, India's march to independence and the Indonesian struggle for freedom.

Boarding with a Congress stalwart, Ouma Bhayat, and surrounded by Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC) activists such as Dr Vallabh Jaga, Dr Zainab Asvat and Dr Abdulhaq Patel, Mosie was recruited into the newly launched Transvaal...