“Pot” Stemmet faces rates around theft of Lottery-funded gear
“Pot” Stemmet faces rates around theft of Lottery-funded gear
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Richard “Pot” Stemmet, left, and an investigator appointed by the Nationwide Lotteries Fee to investigate the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Picture from an investigative report commissioned by the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is struggling with prosecution immediately after products paid for with money through the Lottery was faraway from a Cape City setting up he rented.
Stemmet is to look in court docket in January.
In line with a prosecutor the criminal prices could incorporate fraud, removing of equipment that were attached with the Sheriff and interfering with a City of Cape Town energy meter.
The charges stem from a complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, within a civil courtroom subject, is trying to find to Get well about R2.five-million in unpaid lease, curiosity, legal expenses and harm to a rented setting up in Crete Highway, in the commercial region of Wetton in Cape City.
The making was Earlier the headquarters from the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA) and is wherever a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s generations-old minstrel lifestyle was supposedly operating.
Convicted felony Richard “Pot” Stemmet is facing prosecution for theft and fraud immediately after equipment paid out for with Lottery cash was faraway from a Cape City building.
Stemmet was arrested through the Specialised Business Criminal offense Device on sixteen Oct 2024 and instructed to seem during the Wynberg Justice of the peace’s Court docket on 21 November.
GroundUp attended courtroom to the day even so the issue was not put on the courtroom roll since the investigating officer did not produce the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in court in January.
The felony fees stem from the grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who is trying to get to Get well more than R2.five-million in unpaid rent, fascination, lawful charges and harm to a rented creating in Crete Highway, in the industrial location of Wetton in Cape City.
The building was Formerly the headquarters with the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is when a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s centuries-old minstrel tradition was supposedly working.
The premises also housed numerous corporations owned by Stemmet, whom law enforcement have referred to as a medicine significant flier. Between the businesses Stemmet ran through the premises have been a hat manufacturing company in addition to a nightclub. Stemmet has actually been arrested many occasions for gun and drug-related offences and served time for armed theft within the eighties.
In accordance with an SMS despatched to Meuwese from the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in court docket on 30 January 2025.
Despite the fact that Stemmet is yet for being offered which has a demand sheet, feasible fees, include things like fraud, removing of kit that were connected because of the Sheriff, and interfering which has a Town of Cape City electric power meter, As outlined by an e mail sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor managing the subject.
A grant of virtually R13-million to establish the minstrel museum was Element of in excess of R64-million in Lottery money allotted on the CTMCA in between 2003 and 2017, with the majority of The cash - above R54.three-million - paid while in the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 monetary years, In keeping with Nationwide Lotteries Commission (NLC) annual stories.
Stemmet was appointed a director from the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His wife Zainonesa and daughter Raziah ongoing ผล สลาก as two of several administrators in the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed as a director in 2021.
According to Meuwese, the constructing was leased to Stalph 164, a detailed Company of which Stemmet was among the administrators. The organization was deregistered by the Companies and Intellectual House Commission (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in distributing yearly stories.
A new entity With all the very same title was subsequently registered as A non-public firm, but with Stemmet no more a director, In line with CIPC data. As a substitute, a loved one, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk have been appointed as directors.
Over the evening of twelve April 2021 and into the next early morning, the Crete Street premises were cleared plus the machinery was taken off, Based on an affidavit by Meuwese. The devices was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent within the Athlone industrial place, which housed several of Stemmet’s organizations and also a new “minstrel museum”, according to a leaked investigative report commissioned from the NLC. The investigator also photographed the tools at the new premises.
Nonetheless, the supposed new museum website, such as the old one in Wetton, was well clear of any of Cape Town’s vacationer routes and people couldn't access it. There was no signage over the constructing indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s organizations vacated the premises before this yr after he fell sick.
The funding to determine a museum was not the sole lottery grant the CTMCA been given. In 2021, the association was allocated R100,000 and R1.five-million in Covid aid grants. The NLC at first refused to expose who experienced been given Covid funding but ultimately relented beneath media and parliamentary force.
Other lottery grants allotted to non-gain entities linked to Stemmet and his loved ones and his associates involve R1.four-million with the Cape Cultural Carnival and Occasions Committee in 2019/20, and an extra R500,000 in 2021/22, according to NLC once-a-year experiences. Stemmet is usually a former director from the committee and his spouse, Zainonesa, is at this time a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Association, which can be registered at the CTMCA’s previous Crete Road workplaces, was allotted R190,000 in 2019/20, and an extra R635,000 in 2021/22 for any “craft, woodwork and structure programme”. Even so, it seems that the 2021/22 payment was withheld once the NLC raised questions about remarkable reports connected with before funding been given from the CTMCA.
GroundUp has confirmed that the SIU is investigating the lottery funding obtained with the CTMCA.
Also beneath investigation can be a R1-million payment because of the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which consequently paid R500,000 of the to attorneys acting in the acquisition of a R27-million mansion for previous NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted being a conduit for a further R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, a company where the wife of previous NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, in the direction of the acquisition from the mansion. Zibsimanzi been given R4.8-million to stage a rural soccer Match in Limpopo after Letwaba personally encouraged that the grant be paid to his wife’s corporation.
GroundUp despatched questions to Stemmet by way of SMS but he had not replied by the point of publication.