A great man lives in South Africa’s largest informal settlement, Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg. He was an activist in the ‘Eighties, during a particularly difficult time to be black and outspoken.  The Apartheid state rewarded him with two years in police detention and left him for dead in the veld at the side of the road.

Instead of bitter or broken, Bra Bricks Mokolo emerged as a champion of the poor, and is still at the forefront of grassroots civic activism in the Vaal area.

He founded a recycling business that employs more than a dozen people who make a living by keeping Orange Farm free of plastic litter and bottles, etc.  Everything they collect is recycled.  It is environmentally sound and entrepreneurially viable. He and his wife Gladys also run creche for the neighbourhood.

What he has learned, Bra Bricks passes on to shanty town communities all over the Vaal. He helps groups organise themselves, and helps them register. He preaches self-help and sustainability to all, and empowers them to attain a better life.

He has strong views on the global march towards mass consumerism. Should I forget to hide evidence of my using bottled water on a visit to Orange Farm,  “What is wrong with  tap water, comrade?” I am gently chided.

Yesterday, I received an sms “This morning I found my bakkie stolen.”

Let me say that everyone knows who Bra Bricks is.  Yet some thieves still decided it was worth cutting through his gate and stealing the aged Mazda pick-up.

I know that theft is rife in crime-riddled SA, but the loss of that bakkie will undoubtedly costs some people a living. And make it impossible for Bra Bricks to help other communities in the region.

Alec Russell wrote about him and anti-privatisation issues in a political context in the pink paged one.

I do not have an answer for a blow to an entire swathe of poor communities, but hope that someone does.