At last, Porritt case heads to trial

The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) has ruled that Gary Porritt and Sue Bennett should stand trial for 3 160 charges including fraud and tax offences, linked to their management of the once-listed Tigon in the 1990s and early 2000s, says a Business Day report. The ruling draws to a close a decade-long series of pre-trial skirmishes initiated by the two. There have been 47 judgments by various courts, but the duo has yet to plead to the charges, notes the report. Porritt and Bennett alleged that the state had acted with ulterior motives, obtained false evidence from witnesses and had failed to disclose all relevant information for them to defend themselves. But Judge Brian Spilg ruled: ‘None of the grounds on which a permanent stay is sought prior to the accused actually pleading to the indictment and evidence being presented at trial are extraordinary or can be said to constitute trial prejudice.’ The report adds the spectre of the SARS ‘rogue unit’ had hung over the hearing, with Porritt and Bennett claiming that a report done by auditing firm KPMG into the unit included evidence suggesting SARS had been biased against it. However, Spilg ruled that the right place to test these claims was in a criminal trial. ‘The first difficulty facing the accused is that they have raised trial prejudice prior to pleading to the charge and prior to any evidence being led. They are therefore postulating situations where prejudice may arise, not that it has actually irreversibly done so at this stage,’ Spilg said.