Mining magnate Roger Kebble’s fraud case was struck from the roll of the Johannesburg Regional Court on Wednesday.
Magistrate Vivien Hawkins ordered that the charges not be reinstated without written directions from the office of the local director of public prosecutions.
“It was a fair judgement,” said Kebble, who was arrested in November 2002 and had been on bail of R250 000.
Earlier, the prosecution had unsuccessfully applied for another postponement for further investigation.
“The state was ready to proceed with the trial when new evidence was discovered,” advocate Barry Roux, specially appointed to prosecute in the case, told the court.
According to the charge sheet, Kebble faced 62 counts of fraud relating to allegedly inflated invoices issued to Durban Roodepoort Deep (DRD), on which DRD paid Skilled Labour Brokers.
The excess money of about R7-million was allegedly in Kebble’s account.
The defence urged the court to rule against a postponement, pointing out that it has been 26 months since Kebble’s arrest.
In his ruling, Hawkins found that there has been an unreasonable and prejudicial delay in bringing the case to trial and refused a postponement.
He ordered it removed from the court roll.
Kebble has repeatedly claimed that the charge laid against him by DRD stemmed from a boardroom dispute with Mark Wellesley Wood, his successor as head of DRD.
He has said a “fabricated charge” was laid that was designed to cause damage to his business and personal reputation. — Sapa