The High Court in Pretoria on Thursday dismissed an objection by the trustees of mining rehabilitation funds of two Gupta-owned companies aimed at preventing the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) from making submissions in the trustees' application to release attached assets.

The Trustees for the Time Being of the Optimum Mine Rehabilitation Trust and Trustees for the Time Being of the Koornfontein Mine Rehabilitation Trust were on Thursday applying for the reconsideration of the order granted by the Pretoria High Court in March in favour of the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP).

The March order‚ obtained by the NDPP without the trustees' knowledge‚ preserved the mining rehabilitation funds of Optimum Mine and Koornfontein Mine that were held by the Bank of Baroda‚ which left the country at the end of March.

The March order said the money in the trusts must be transferred from the Bank of Baroda to Nedbank for safekeeping‚ with interest.

The NDPP sought to preserve this money‚ which is set aside by legislation and only to be used for the rehabilitation of the mines at the end of their operating life‚ on a suspicion that these funds had been irregularly used with the blessing of the trustees.

The amounts involved are about R1.4-billion in the Optimum rehabilitation trust and R280-million in the Koornfontein rehabilitation trust.

Thursday was set to be the day for the court to hear an application by the trustees for the reconsideration of the March preservation order.

However Outa brought a late application on Wednesday to be joined in the proceedings‚ in which it indicated it would seek a postponement of the trusts' reconsideration application.

Outa‚ which in September last year obtained a court order against the trustees "freezing" of the rehabilitation funds in the hands of Bank of Baroda‚ also sought that the trustees' application be heard together with Outa's application set down for May 31.

Counsel for Optimum Mike Hellens SC and Koornfontein Rafik Bhana SC opposed Outa's application‚ saying Outa had not followed the rules of the court in joining the proceedings.

However‚ Judge Bill Prinsloo dismissed the trustees' objection and held that Outa should be given an opportunity to make its submissions.

"It is clear Outa has a direct interest in the matter‚" Prinsloo said.

Prinsloo said‚ in his view‚ it would be a sorry day if courts were to close the door in a case where all stakeholders had a major interest in the outcome of the proceedings.

The matter was adjourned to allow the parties to decide how the matter should proceed.