Former top Durban school principal in plea negotiation over 'stolen' money

Former Glenwood High School headmaster Trevor Kershaw, charged with defrauding the school of more than R5m, is in plea negotiations with the state.

Kershaw, who was arrested in 2016, was to stand trial before Durban commercial crime court magistrate Dawn Soomaroo on Thursday.

But defence advocate Gideon Scheltema SC and state prosecutor Wendy O’Brien asked that the matter be adjourned to allow negotiations to continue.

Kershaw, 58, was the principal of the school from 2000 until December 2015.

It was during his tenure, the state alleges, that he paid himself from school coffers in cash or through electronic transfers using “home-made” invoices.

O’Brien told the court there was “determination from both sides” to resolve the issue without going to trial.

“Just the finer details are being worked out,” she said.

The magistrate warned that should the negotiations break down, the trial would begin.

In 2017, when the matter was first set down for trial, Kershaw made an unsuccessful bid to have some of the 1,624 charges against him quashed, saying he would not get a fair trial.

His legal team argued that he had been “literally swamped” with thousands of documents in electronic form which they could not link to specific charges.

They also wanted to exclude evidence of key witnesses, including forensic auditor Eckhard Volker, who they accused of being biased.

O’Brien said the application was a delaying tactic “designed to collapse and avoid the trial”.

The presiding magistrate ruled that the charge sheet and further particulars supplied by the state were sufficient for him to know the nature of the charges against him and the evidence the state would present.