12 Facts About Allister Sparks

Allister Haddon Sparks was a South African writer, journalist, and political commentator.

Allister Sparks was the editor of The Rand Daily Mail when it broke Muldergate, the story of how the apartheid government secretly funded information projects.

Allister Sparks began his journalism career at the Queenstown Daily Representative in 1951.

Allister Sparks was a journalist for The Rand Daily Mail and then a columnist in the 1960s.

Allister Sparks worked for the Mail since 1967 as an editor and was let go when the board decided to target a white audience.

Allister Sparks died in Johannesburg on 19 September 2016 due to a heart attack following an infection.

Allister Sparks later wrote a number of critically acclaimed books on South Africa's transition from apartheid, including The Mind of South Africa, Tomorrow Is Another Country, and more recently Beyond the Miracle: Inside the New South Africa.

Allister Sparks wrote the book First Drafts, as well as Tutu: The Authorised Portrait of Desmond Tutu, with a Foreword by His Holiness The Dalai Lama written with Tutu's daughter, and published in 2011 for Tutu's 80th birthday.

Allister Sparks published his memoires, The Sword and the Pen: Six decades on the political frontier, shortly before his death.

Allister Sparks founded the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism in South Africa and was its executive director from 1992 to 1997.

Allister Sparks won the Louis M Lyons Award while with The Observer.

Allister Sparks was the first South African journalist to receive the award.