The Pretoria High Court grappled yesterday with the issue of whether a review now or an appeal later would be appropriate in former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni's fraud and corruption case.

Yengeni and his co-accused, top aerospace firm executive Michael Woerfel, say that the charge sheet in the case is deficient in places, and that the charges must be quashed or the state must provide further details.

Gauteng Judge President Bernard Ngoepe was reluctant to deviate from the common practice of allowing cases to run their course before they are taken on appeal. Case law indicates that courts are reluctant to deal with cases in a piecemeal fashion and do so in "rare cases" and only when there is a possibility of "great injustice" to the accused.

With acknowledgements to Bonile Ngqiyaza and Business Day.