The farce known as the Boeremag trial could last for years - and cost taxpayers countless millions.
Defence lawyer Bernard Bandjes on Thursday told Judge Eben Jordaan he felt the trial was "getting out of hand".
He was referring to all the delays and bickering about legal aid and Correctional Services allegedly violating the rights of the accused.
Bandjes said no one seemed to be able to agree on anything.
Most of the 22 accused have been denied bail and have been in custody for almost two years.
And while the arguments in and out of the courtroom continue, taxpayers are forking out millions of rands for the trial which, a year since it started, has yet to finish the testimony of the first state witness.
Apart from the costs incurred transporting the accused under heavy police guard to and from court there are several armed policemen guarding the court room inside and out.
Then there are the mounting legal costs.
More than 10 interlocutory applications have also been heard by various judges since the start of the trial, for which the State obtained the services of senior counsel on a number of occasions.
Jordaan on Thursday said he was also worried about the snail's pace at which the trial was proceeding. There were 369 witnesses on the State's list, although not all of them would necessarily be called. "When the trial will finish I don't know," the judge said.
The latest setback facing the trial is that 13 of the accused will in all probability be without legal representation within a week or two.
On Thursday the 13 accused represented by Advocate Piet Pistorius and lawyer Paul Kruger abandoned an application to force the Legal Aid Board to pay their counsel higher fees. Between them they want R11 520 a day.
The Pretoria High Court earlier turned down an application by the accused for the board to review its refusal to pay the counsel the fees they are demanding.
A new application in this regard was set to be heard on Thursday. It was based on the provisions of Section 38 of the Constitution which deals with an accused's right to choose their legal representative.
The board earlier agreed to pay the fees of Pistorius and Kruger in respect of the 13 accused, but said the board's maximum fee could not exceed R2 375 per counsel per day.
In a new attempt to retain their counsel, the 13 wanted the court to set an amount which the board should pay their counsel.
But the Legal Aid Board insisted that if the application failed, Pistorius and Kruger had to pay the legal costs incurred by the application out of their own pockets. Upon hearing this, the accused decided they could not risk their counsel paying for an application brought to benefit them.
Pistorius and Kruger indicated that they would continue to represent their clients free of charge until the conclusion of the testimony of the first State witness who is still under cross examination. Although they have not given official notice that they will withdraw after the testimony, it is likely that the 13 will soon be on their own.