Principal in trouble over cash, Sars funds

WINDSOR High School principal Phaldie Tregonning has landed in hot water over alleged missing monies.

A parent at the Lansdowne school, who asked to remain anonymous, accused Tregonning of pocketing money raised from a raffle, as well as being responsible for the school owing the South African Revenue Service (Sars) R246 000.

Tregonning has since been suspended, and the outcome of his disciplinary hearing is pending.

The parents allege that Tregonning had circulated a raffle among the pupils last year that gave participants a chance to win a cellphone.

The raffle was neither discussed nor approved by the school’s governing body (SGB), the parent said, although the raffle had raised about R37 000 – of which not a single cent was put into the school’s kitty.

The parent also alleged that Tregonning had signed an acknowledgement that the school was R246 000 behind in its payments to Sars.

The parent said that when the SGB first raised the alarm with the WCED regarding the raffle last year, the department “dragged its feet” and did nothing.

“This raffle was being distributed without the SGB’s knowledge. The date of that raffle letter was around March 9.

“We had an SGB meeting on March 14 in which the chairperson asked the principal what the raffle was all about and who approved it.

‘‘The principal, as usual, refused to answer direct questions and instead changed the topic to inform us about the donor of the cellphones for the raffle.

“He also said this donor was the NGO he had

The raffle was distributed without the SGB’s knowledge

previously referred to as wanting to partner with the school in various initiatives.

“We all thought this sounded too good to be true so we asked for a direct meeting with a representative of the NGO,” the parents wrote to the Western Cape Education Department (WCED).

It later turned out that the representative of the alleged NGO was a childhood friend of Tregonning’s and introduced himself as knowing all the Tregonning brothers, the parent said.

After the Sars revelation, Tregonning was suspended, the parent said.

Western Cape Education Department spokesperson Millicent Merton said a senior educator had been charged with misconduct and they were awaiting the finding of the presiding officer regarding his disciplinary hearing.

Of the raffle incident, Merton said: “In this case, the allegations were investigated by the district office and they compiled a report which they submitted to head office (Directorate: Employee Relations) on November 20 last year.

“Based on the report, the directorate then proceeded with a disciplinary process,” Merton said.

Tregonning could not be reached for comment yesterday.