Anatomy of a malicious prosecution: the timeline
May 2000 Mark Wellesly-Wood is appointed non-executive director of Durban
Roodepoort Deep (DRD).
Nov 2000 Wood assumes the position of chairman and chief executive
of DRD.
4 Mar 2002 Wood suspends deputy chairman Roger Kebble’s executive duties with
immediate effect. Kebble is not allowed on DRD premises and may not
contact any DRD employee and/or contractors except the Company
Secretary in respect of his duties as non-executive director. On public
announcement of this, Wood plays thesong: “Another one bites the
dust”.
Mar 2002 Wood is quoted as promising to “take the K-factor out of DRD”.
20 Mar 2002 Roger Kebble’s retirement from DRD is formalised at a DRD board
meeting.
30 June 2002 Roger Kebble officially retires from the board of DRD and Wood immediately cancelled all Kebble’s retirement benefits
6 Nov 2002 Kebbles’ attorney, Lourens van Staden of Tabacks, calls the investigating police officer after hearing rumours of police queries and informs him that Mr Kebbleis willing to meet and answer questions. The investigating officer told van Staden that on Mr Kebble’s return from overseas he would have to contact the investigating officer to set up a meeting. Thereafter the investigating officer remainsuncontactable until after Kebble’s arrest.
11 Nov 2002 Roger Kebble is publicly arrested at JohannesburgInternationalAirport,
charged with 38 counts of fraud and contravening the South African
Companies Act. It is alleged that he fraudulently obtained over R6-
million from DRD by acting as a third party in transactions between DRD
and security consultant Ronnie Watson’s Global Economic Research
(GER). He spends the night jail. Warren Goldblatt, the head of AIN is
allegedly present at the arrest.
12 Nov 2002 Roger Kebble appears at JohannesburgRegional Court and is
grantedbail ofR250 000. The case is remanded to 24 January 2003.
12 Nov 2002 Roger Kebble later presents the very strongRandgold quarterlies.
Media coverage of the results is overshadowed by his arrest.
13 Nov 2002 Roger Kebble applies to have his bail conditions amended. The matter
is remanded to 3 March 2003.
14 Nov 2002 Police raid the home of Ronnie Watson. They are accompanied by
Mark Pinnington and Ms. Kerrie Velosa from Deloitte Touche, DRD’s auditors participate in the search. The search warrant is later overturned because of the lack of a proper foundation in the application for a search warrant and because ofirregularities perpetrated in the course of the search. The return of seizeddocuments is ordered.
24 Jan 2003 Roger Kebble appears in the Johannesburg Magistrates’ Court. The
case is postponed to 3 March 2003.
20 Feb 2003 The Kebbles obtain an Anton Pillar High Court order against DRD and
various other parties tosearch and seize certain documents in order to
prevent the potential destruction of evidence. This is subsequently
overturned on an execution technicality.
3 Mar 2003 Roger Kebble appears in court. The case is postponedto 12May 2003.
17 Mar 2003 Roger Kebble applies for a further amendment to bail conditions in
obtaining his passport. The matter is remanded to 22 July 2003.
12 May 2003 Roger Kebble appears in court. The case is postponed to 22 July 2003.
24 Jun 2003 Former Judge Willem Heath completes an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the arrest of Roger Kebble. His findings are
that conclusive and irrefutable evidence exists of bribery and corruption
ofSAPS officers in order to effect the arrest of Mr Kebble. Similarly, he
found that Associated Intelligence Network (AIN) had used illegal
means to access information and then used bribery to effect the
opening of a police docket against Roger Kebble.
30 Jun 2003 Godobo Investigative and Forensic Auditing, commissioned by Roger
and Brett Kebble to investigate Skilled Labour Brokers, the entity used
as a third party in DRD/GER transactions and of which Roger was the
sole member, finds no evidence of fraudulent practices.
22 Jul 2003 Roger Kebble appears in court. The case is postponed to 25 July 2003.
He makes an application to strike the case from the roll for
unreasonable delay.
25 Jul 2003 Roger Kebble appears in court. The case is postponedto 28 July 2003.
The State assures the court has finalised investigations, requiring only
discussions with the forensic auditors.
28 Jul 2003 Roger Kebble appears at the Johannesburg Regional Court. The case is
postponedto 28 August2003. The magistrate warns the Prosecutor that
failure to produce acharge sheet within 30 days will result in the case
beingstruck from theroll.
28 Aug 2003 Roger Kebble appears in court. The State produces a charge sheet and
the case is postponed to 2 February 2004 as a provisional date.
31 Oct 2003 The State dispatches a letter outlining intentions to consult with “further
witnesses” and considerations of “amending the charge sheet to include
the period July 1996 to June 1998”; the State would let the accused
know “in due course” what further charges were to be introduced and
what existing charges were to be amended. This contravenes the order
that the State finalise its investigations, charge sheet and docket by 28
August2003.
20Jan 2004 Roger Kebble appears in court. He applies for amendment of bail
conditions andthe State applies for bail to be cancelled. The case is
remanded to 4 March 2004 in order to allow the relevant affidavits to
be delivered but Kebble’s bail conditions are extended.
4 March 2004 Roger Kebble appears in court and applies again for the case to be
struck from the roll due to unreasonable delay. The case is
postponed to 30 June 2004 as the Court was ruled not to have the
capacity to hear the applications due to the voluminous papers.
30 Jun 2004 Roger Kebble appears in court. His bail conditions are further extended
The case is postponed to 10 January2005 for trial.
10 Jan 2005 Roger Kebble appears at the Johannesburg Magistrates’ Court. The
matter is postponed to19 January 2005 so the State “can consider the
merits of the case”.
19 Jan 2005 Roger Kebble appears in Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court. Following
the State’s application for further postponement, the Magistrate orders
that the matter be struck from the roll.