Police have confirmed the re-arrest of two treason-accused Boeremag members who escaped from custody May 3 last year, 702 radio reported on Saturday.
Herman van Rooyen and Rudi Gouws were arrested shortly before 6am on Saturday at a townhouse complex in Littleton, Pretoria, the report said.
”Although the two made an attempt to resist, they were quickly overpowered by police,” said national police spokesperson Sally de Beer. ”The fugitives were armed with fully automatic rifles with rounds.”
The pair disappeared from the Pretoria High Court on May 3 where their trial — with 20 others — for treason was being heard.
The two men, close friends and farmers from the Bela Bela area in Limpopo, were said to be among the most militant and dangerous of the group.
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 May 3 2006 remains a mystery.
Uneaten food, spotted by a policeman in the holding cells, 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 at the time he was ”shocked” by his client’s disappearance.
”The last thing we want is a bloodbath or a shootout with the police,” he said.
Van Rooyen and Gouws were known to have cultivated a ”friendly” relationship with the policemen who have transported them daily from prison to court since the trial started.
A series of bomb explosions in October 2002 that killed one person formed part of the Boeremag’s bid to create chaos and pave the way for a violent right-wing coup.
De Beer was not immediately available when the the Mail & Guardian Online sought comment on Saturday morning. – Sapa