Fraud accused Gary van der Merwe and Paul Kilian are to be allowed time to appeal a Legal Aid Board decision to refuse them representation at state expense.
But this would have to be done to a timetable, Cape High Court judge James Yekiso said on Monday.
He was speaking as the trial of the two men - originally scheduled to start in March last year - again failed to get under way.
Van der Merwe, a Cape Town businessman involved in, among other things, helicopter recovery and maintenance, told Yekiso he had had no "direct income" for the past six months.
Though he had applied for legal aid, the board had refused, and though he wanted to appeal, the board had not replied to his request for detailed reasons.
"I am unable to process an appeal if I do not know what I'm appealing against," he said. However prosecutor Piet Botha said Van der Merwe first applied for legal aid only at the beginning of August.
"They [Van der Merwe and Kilian] don't do anything," he said. "By doing nothing they are effectively stalling the start of proceedings."
Board representative Russell Cloete told the court that Van der Merwe and Kilian were turned down because they did not meet the means test.
The board had replied to their request for further reasons, and would take five days to weigh up any appeal.
Yekiso postponed the matter to Tuesday (SUBS: Nov 3) when, he said, he would hand down an order containing a time frame for an appeal.
In September another judge set Monday as the "final" date for the trial, and accused Van der Merwe of deliberately frustrating efforts to get the hearing under way.
The state has listed some 900 potential witnesses for the trial. Van der Merwe faces 11 counts of tax and investor fraud, and Kilian three of investor fraud only.
The charges stem from their involvement in Van der Merwe's companies World Online Limited (WOL) and Wellness International Network (WIN).
