The disappearance of State witnesses led to the withdrawal on Wednesday of six fraud charges against a former senior salary administrator at the company Bromor Foods.

Benita Theresa Fell's trial was to have commenced on Wednesday in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court before magistrate Amrith Chabilall, on fraud charges involving R166 054.

She had also faced a seventh count under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.

However, prosecutor Zama Matayi asked for a two-week postponement, in order to track down three crucial prosecution witnesses who had left their employ at Bromor Foods without leaving any forwarding addresses.

He said one was "somewhere in Johannesburg", another was at an unknown address in the Eastern Cape and the third was "somewhere in Cape Town".

Because their addresses were unknown, the State had been unable to secure their presence in court with subpoenas, he said.

However, legal aid attorney Marco Thomas opposed the application on the grounds that the three witnesses were untraceable and unlikely to be located within two weeks.

He said Fell (44) a mother, had secured a permanent job which was of paramount importance to her. It had taken him two full days to consult Fell and prepare her defence, and he was ready to proceed with the case.

Chabilall said he would normally have granted the postponement, but it would be futile to do so as there was no indication whether the trial would definitely commence in two weeks.

For this reason, he would remove the case from the court roll, which meant the withdrawal of the charges.

Chabilall told Fell that she was free to go, but warned her that Matayi was likely to re-institute the prosecution if the missing witnesses were found.