The case against 11 high-profile private sector and former state executives implicated in a R398.4-million Transnet fraud and corruption case - including among them the state parastatal's former bosses Brian Molefe and Siyabonga Gama - was postponed until 30 November to give the defence full disclosure of the contents of the docket.

There are 16 parties involved if the companies who stand charged are included. Among these are top advisory firm McKinsey & Co. South Africa, as well Gupta-linked Trillian Asset Management and Regiments.

There were as many as 20 lawyers present for the sitting in the Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Johannesburg on Friday, including high-profile advocates such as Barry Roux, SC, who is representing McKinsey SA. Roux famously represented Olympian Oscar Pistorius during his murder trial.

The accused include McKinsey SA employee Goitseone Mangope, who is charged as a representative of the company, but not in his personal capacity.

Along with McKinsey are executives of companies Regiments and Trillian Asset Management, which both have links to the Gupta family, who have been implicated in the capture of key state institutions.

The others accused in the matter include Transnet's former CFO Anoj Singh and former acting CFO Garry Pita, Regiments Capital directors Niven Pillay and Litha Nyhonhya, former group treasurer Phetolo Ramosebudi, Regiments shareholder Eric Wood, Trillian Asset Management current director Daniel Roy, and company Albatime and its owner Kuben Moodley.

The charges relate to Transnet's consultancy agreement for the procurement of 1 064 locomotives for the state-owned enterprise.

The accused, with the exception of the McKinsey representatives, had previously appeared in court on 30 September. Following various arguments put to the court by the defendants' legal teams - some of whom argued the matter should be struck from the roll because only a draft unsigned charge sheet had been presented to the defendants and not a final one - Magistrate Emmanuel Magampa ruled it was in the interest of justice for the matter to be allowed to be postponed to 30 November.

The defence argued that some of the accused had been waiting for months to have their cases heard. It added that the prosecution team was dragging its heels in order to be seen to be prosecuting high-profile individuals alleged to have been involved in state capture. But Magampa said it was only the second appearance for the bulk of the accused, including Molefe and Mangope.

Advocate Thembela Bakamela, representing the state, said the investigating officer had reached out to the legal representatives of the accused to ask them to provide hard drives in order to upload the contents of the docket, which is significant in size.

Bakamela said the prosecution team had complied with what it had told the court in previous sittings, i.e., that it would provide a charge sheet, and that is would start initiating disclosures of the contents of the docket.

Sindisiwe Seboka, spokesperson for the Investigating Directorate of the National Prosecuting Authority, said afterwards the prosecuting team would not be "deterred by the sideshows" of the defence teams of the accused and that it had "complied with our commitments to present a charge sheet and begin disclosing contents of the docket".