JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Collin Chauke, the most wanted man in South Africa, appeared in court Wednesday after being on the run for more than a year.
During that time he taunted the police by attending a ministerial birthday party, telephoning radio stations to protest his innocence and delivering a Christmas card to the detective leading the manhunt for him.Chauke, a 30-year-old former African National Congress guerrilla and local counselor, is accused of 30 murders and 17 armed robberies of security vans that netted more than $12.8 million. Police say the heists were carried out with military precision and without a thought for the lives of the security guards who were shot.
President Nelson Mandela congratulated the police on the arrest of Chauke and an accomplice Tuesday outside a luxury house in the eastern city of Nelspruit. After a brief court appearance Wednesday, he was sent to the country's most secure prison -- the "C-Max" unit in Pretoria that houses mass murderers.
Asked at the court how he felt, he said, "I feel good." His hands and legs were shackled, and he had a cut above his right eye. He was surrounded by policemen in bullet-proof vests.
Chauke escaped from prison in Pretoria in a hail of gunfire in December 1997 after holding a guard hostage. He was awaiting trial for a $2 million security van heist.
At the time, the police said they would recapture Chauke within weeks. But he laughed off the threat and was spotted several times driving around the Pretoria area in his yellow BMW.
In February last year he turned up at a party to celebrate the 40th birthday of the deputy environment and tourism minister, Peter Mokaba. Guests said he was having a splendid time until one of Mokaba's neighbors called the police to complain about the noise.
By the time they arrived Chauke had slipped away, much to the embarrassment of the deputy minister, who said he would have arrested him had he known who he was.
Chauke occasionally called favored reporters and arranged to meet them outside police stations. He told a Johannesburg radio station he had been framed for the robberies. He said the real mastermind behind the cash heists was the man leading the manhunt: Bushie Engelbrecht, director of the police special investigation unit.