The two Boeremag members who escaped from the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday are no strangers to life on the run.
Herman van Rooyen (33) and Rudi Gouws (28) eluded police for more than two months before they were among the last of 22 alleged right-wing coup plotters arrested in December 2002.
The two men, close friends and farmers from the Bela Bela area in Limpopo, are also among the most militant and dangerous of the group accused of planting bombs and planning to overthrow the state. Police warned on Thursday that they could be armed and dangerous.
Van Rooyen, who married his childhood sweetheart while on trial for murder, treason and conspiracy, was the regional commander of the Boeremag, while Gouws was responsible for the organisation’s finances.
When apprehended outside Pretoria, Van Rooyen was driving a truck loaded with 384kg of explosives and two sacks of scrap metal. Police said he planned to use it as a car bomb.
How the two men managed to walk out of the court precinct during the lunch break on Wednesday is a mystery. They were among 12 Boeremag accused who have repeatedly been refused bail and were being held at Pretoria’s high security C Max prison.
Uneaten food, spotted by a policeman in the holding cells shortly before the case resumed on Wednesday afternoon, was the first clue to the escape. The absence of the two men as the accused filed back into the dock went unnoticed by lawyers and 40 heavily armed policemen.
Piet Pistorius, Van Rooyen’s advocate, said he was ”shocked” by his client’s disappearance. He appealed to the fugitives to hand themselves over or contact him to arrange to do so. ”The last thing we want is a bloodbath or a shootout with the police,” said Pistorius.
As a massive manhunt was launched, speculation was rife that police guards might have helped them. Van Rooyen and Gouws are known to have cultivated a ”friendly” relationship with the policemen who have transported them daily from prison to court since the trial started almost three years ago.
Police spokesperson Director Sally de Beer confirmed that possible police complicity in the escape was being investigated.
One possibility is that the men made their way from the holding cells below the High Court through an underground tunnel leading to the historic Palace of Justice on Church Square, and simply walked out of the building.
As soon as police realised that Van Rooyen and Gouws were missing, access to the court building was sealed and it was searched from top to bottom. Although the Boeremag accused who are in custody are handcuffed when they are being transported between prison and the court, they are not shackled during the lunch break.
Border posts with neighbouring states have been placed on the alert for the fugitives amid speculation that they may try to flee the country.
Their trial has been beset by delays as prosecutors have laboriously trudged through evidence on 42 charges based on an alleged plan to overthrow the government.