Andre stander biography

A white, apartheid-era police captain who robbed banks in a crime spree before being shot dead while fleeing on a bicycle has emerged as a hero for the new South Africa.

André Stander, jail-breaker, adrenaline junkie and master of disguise, has returned 18 years after he was gunned down to be hailed as the sort of outlaw South Africa wished it had today.

Considered by some a Scarlet Pimpernel, Stander is the subject of a government-backed film with a Hollywood director and actor, a new play and an arts festival workshop.

Mboyti, a holiday resort, boasts that it once hosted the fugitive. Like Elvis, Stander is rumoured to be alive.

'All this interest is recharging the myth and is obliging us to look at where we were then as a society and where we are now,' said Guy Willoughby, a cultural critic and writer whose play, Stander Lives, will open in Cape Town next year.

'Crime here is a creative act; it's one of our means of self-expression.