Advocate Gilbert Marcus, SC, on Monday argued before the Johannesburg High Court that his clients, Roger and Brett Kebble broke no laws in a series of deals involving Randfontein Estates gold mine in 1999.
And if they did, the transgressions carried no criminal penalty, Marcus said. The trial follows a long-running feud between the Kebbles and former business associates as well as countless sets of allegations and counter-allegations of impropriety.
The State alleges the Kebbles had, in 1999, rigged the share price of Randfontein gold mine in their own favour on the JSE Securities Exchange by, among other things, buying shares in the company without informing the interested public.
In doing so, they had broken JSE listing rules, had breached the Companies Act and had contravened the Securities Regulation Panel’s rules.
But Marcus told judge Joop Labuschagne that none of this amounted to a breach of criminal law and that by bringing the Kebbles to court the State had erred and had violated their constitutional rights.
Marcus said none of the statutory requirements the Kebbles were accused of breaking carried a criminal penalty, meaning that the issue before the court was not a criminal matter.
The SRP’s rules were also guidelines that were not ”set in stone.” – Sapa