Escaped South African treason defendants captured

JOHANNESBURG, Jan 20 (Reuters) South African police today arrested two escaped defendants accused of being part of a white extremist plot to topple the black-led government, officials said.

Police spokeswoman Sally de Beer said Herman van Rooyen and Rudi Gouws, who escaped during a routine court appearance last year, were arrested at a townhouse complex near Pretoria and were armed with automatic rifles.

''Van Rooyen, 33, and Gouws, 29, were surprised at 0320 hrs this morning when the Special Task Force stormed the duplex ...,'' said a statement from the national police commissioner's office.

''Although the two men made an attempt to resist, they were quickly overpowered by police.'' The men were among a group of white South Africans who went on trial in 2003 on charges of seeking to overthrow South Africa's post-apartheid government through a campaign of bombings and the planned assassination of revered former President Nelson Mandela.

They were part of a group dubbed the ''Boeremag'' or ''Afrikaner Force'', which includes 20 others.

The trial has moved extremely slowly as defence lawyers sought to challenge both the validity of South Africa's justice system and the 1996 constitution which established the country as a multi-racial democracy.

Officials originally said the plotters posed a serious threat to democracy amid signs of disaffection among hardline white Afrikaners who have seen their influence wane with the end of apartheid.

But the case later took on the air of a farce as testimony revealed plans by the group to launch a ''breeding farm'' to produce more white babies while chasing the country's 40 million blacks into neighbouring Zimbabwe.

REUTERS MS VV1528