Four Zimbabweans have been remanded on charges of contravening the country's Gold Trade Act.
The four, retired businessman Ian Macmillan, his son Ewan, pilot Clair Burdett and mining director Collin Rose have been accused of smuggling about $68-million (about R436-million) of gold to SA through a "well-organised" crime syndicate.
Lawyers for the accused deny the charge, saying the police failed to do their work.
State lawyers say the four bought gold in Zimbabwe through a crime syndicate called IE&C before smuggling it to South Africa for onward exportation to Britain.
The state says the four forged documents to show the gold came from Zambia, making a total of 65 trips to South Africa in a private aeroplane. They are accused of smuggling almost 7 500kg of gold.
Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank and finance ministry officials have in recent weeks promised to crack down on gold smugglers, saying billions of dollars of revenue are being lost to the state.
Zimbabwe's independent Sunday Standard newspaper said this week it had documents showing that much of Zimbabwe's gold smuggling was being controlled by senior members of the ruling party. - Independent Foreign Service