GUILTY AND PROUD, an MK soldier's memoir of exile, prison and freedom

 287pp., paperback, Cape Town, 2024

Forewords by Thabo Mbeki and Ronnie Kasrils.

Marion Sparg on her experience in Umkhonto we Siswe (MK) – often as the only woman in training camps in Angola - her years in exile, her friendships with Chris Hani, Joe Slovo and Thabo Mbeki, her secret return to South Africa, the three bombs she exploded in police stations and her arrest and imprisonment.

"Stellar ... Sparg brilliantly reminds us of some of the cruellest and bravest times of our struggle." Mandla Langa, author of The Lost Language of the Soul

Sparg, a Sunday Times journalist, joined MK after 32 ANC members and 19 civilians were killed in an SADF raid in Maseru, Lesotho. In exile (1981-1986) she received training in guerrilla warfare and worked in ANC communication and on the Voice of Women journal. After joining Special Operations, she entered the country secretly. In 1986, she was given a 25-year prison sentence for High Treason. She was freed in 1991.

Sparg worked as publicity secretary in the ANC Border Region and then as co-ordinator of Cyril Ramaphosa’s office (1991-1994). After the first democratic elections she served in various capacities in the new government. In 2000, she became CEO of the National Prosecuting Authority, a position that she retained until her resignation in 2007, She now works in the private sector as a communications strategist. She lives in Johannesburg.