The six-year legal nightmare of two former Saambou Bank managers on Wednesday came to an end when the pair were acquitted on charges of theft, fraud and reckless company management.

Pretoria High Court judge Willem van der Merwe handed down a lengthy judgment in which he discharged the former head of Saambou Bank group finance, Gerhardus De Clercq, and former senior manager and executive director Charles Edwards on 13 criminal charges.

He at the same time also cleared the name of the former chief executive officer of the bank, Johan Myburgh, who was a former co-accused but died of cancer in December last year.

De Clercq and Myburgh were charged with reckless management of a public company, theft and ten counts of fraud relating to a number of Saambou share schemes and capital transactions in the late 1990s.

Both applied for their discharge after the state closed its case.

Van der Merwe said the two could not be convicted unless they incriminated themselves, which was in any event highly unlikely, and he was convinced they were entitled to their discharge.

He sharply criticised the state's chief witness, forensic accountant Johan van der Walt, for not investigating the matter properly, ignoring or misinterpreting important documents and incorporating irrelevant detail in his voluminous forensic report.

He said Van der Walt had clearly copied an earlier report by one Herman de Beer, who was appointed as inspector to report to the registrar of banks, and had even incorporated De Beer's mistakes in his own report.

De Beer was not a chartered accountant, but a legal expert.

The judge said it was clear that many of the state witnesses had not testified to the advantage of the state. Some had criticised Van der Walt and many were clearly of the opinion that De Clercq and Edwards should not have been charged.

He stressed that each of the decisions which formed the subject of the trial had been taken after Saambou's directors or a relevant committee had carefully investigated and considered it at the hand of expert advice from sources such as external auditors, the Reserve Bank and senior legal advisors.

"It is clear that all information in possession of the accused was also known to the directors and the auditors... No information was withheld and the auditors were not influenced to certify the financial statements.

"... No evidence whatsoever was presented that either of the accused had the intention of acting to the detriment of Saambou Bank or Saambou Holdings or that they had favoured themselves as suggested in the indictment," he said.