A Spook's Progress: From Making War to Making Peace

This book is an account of the career of a former South African intelligence agent, from his stint in the SADF in the 1960s and 70s and his participation in the war in Namibia and Angola to his forays into military intelligence and his later work in the National Intelligence Service, of which he became a member in the early 1980s. In the late 1980s, he was among the first to start official discussions overseas with the exiled leadership of the ANC on possible solutions to the national dilemma. From the early 1990s he was involved in the World Trade Centre negotiations for a peaceful political settlement in the country, and at the same time was heavily involved in the development of the 1993 Constitution and the birth of the New South Africa in 1994. Threaded through the narrative are many personal anecdotes and encounters with people of consequence who will be familiar to readers, including the likes of Jacob Zuma, Thabo Mbeki, Roelf Meyer, Kobie Coetsee and Chris Hani. Meant as an impressionistic rather than a historical account, A Spook's Progressis a mixture of serious reflection and humorous recounting, often ironic and satirical, but told with great humility. It is a fascinating, sometimes astounding, and frank account of a former intelligence agent's life and work during apartheid South Africa and an honest depiction of day-to-day life as a spy, from the routine of bureaucratic paper-pushing to the excitement of covert field ops. A Spook's Progresswill appeal to a readership interested in the contemporary military, intelligence and political/constitutional history of South Africa, without being inaccessible to the lay reader.

Maritz Spaarwater was a senior member of various intelligence agencies in the apartheid era, first with Military, Intelligence, and thereafter with the National Intelligence Service and the Constitutional Development Service. He holds degrees in law, international relations, international law and translation studies from the universities of Pretoria, Witwatersrand, Cambridge and Stellenbosch. He has practised law, is a sworn translator of the High Court and has dabbled in local and national politics.