“Pot” Stemmet faces costs in excess of theft of Lottery-funded equipment
“Pot” Stemmet faces costs in excess of theft of Lottery-funded equipment
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Richard “Pot” Stemmet, still left, and an investigator appointed by the Nationwide Lotteries Fee to analyze the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Image from an investigative report commissioned via the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is dealing with prosecution immediately after devices paid out for with money from your Lottery was removed from a Cape City making he rented.
Stemmet is to seem in courtroom in January.
In keeping with a prosecutor the prison costs could contain fraud, removing of equipment that were hooked up through the Sheriff and interfering which has a City of Cape Town energy meter.
The fees stem from a grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, inside of a civil court docket make a difference, is trying to get to recover more than R2.5-million in unpaid hire, desire, lawful expenditures and harm to a rented constructing in Crete Street, in the industrial region of Wetton in Cape City.
The setting up was Earlier the headquarters on the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA) and it is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s centuries-outdated minstrel culture was supposedly running.
Convicted criminal Richard “Pot” Stemmet is struggling with prosecution for theft and fraud right after equipment paid out for with Lottery cash was faraway from a Cape Town creating.
Stemmet was arrested via the Specialised Commercial Crime Unit on 16 October 2024 and informed to seem while in the Wynberg Justice of the peace’s Courtroom on 21 November.
GroundUp attended courtroom over the working day but the matter wasn't put on the courtroom roll since the investigating officer did not produce the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to look in courtroom in January.
The criminal rates stem from the complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that's trying to get to Recuperate more than R2.five-million in unpaid rent, fascination, legal prices and damage to a rented setting up in Crete Road, in the economic region of Wetton in Cape City.
The building was Formerly the headquarters of your Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the town’s generations-old minstrel culture was supposedly working.
The premises also housed various businesses owned by Stemmet, whom police have described as a medication large flier. Amid the businesses Stemmet ran from your premises have been a hat production organization as well as a nightclub. Stemmet is arrested numerous occasions for gun and drug-related offences and served time for armed theft inside the 1980s.
In keeping with an SMS sent to Meuwese via the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in courtroom on thirty January 2025.
Though Stemmet is nonetheless for being introduced with a cost sheet, doable charges, contain fraud, elimination of apparatus that had been connected with the Sheriff, and interfering which has a Town of Cape City electric power meter, according to an electronic mail despatched to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor dealing with the issue.
A grant of virtually R13-million to establish the minstrel museum was part of more than R64-million in Lottery cash allocated into the CTMCA involving 2003 and 2017, with the bulk of The cash - more than R54.three-million - paid from the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 economic decades, In line with Countrywide Lotteries Commission (NLC) annual stories.
Stemmet was appointed a director of the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His wife Zainonesa and daughter Raziah continued ตรวจ as two of many directors on the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed as being a director in 2021.
As outlined by Meuwese, the developing was leased to Stalph 164, an in depth Company of which Stemmet was one of the directors. The business was deregistered by the businesses and Intellectual Residence Fee (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in distributing yearly stories.
A completely new entity with the exact same identify was subsequently registered as A personal corporation, but with Stemmet no more a director, In line with CIPC information. As an alternative, a family member, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk were being appointed as directors.
Around the night of 12 April 2021 and into the next early morning, the Crete Road premises were being cleared along with the equipment was taken out, Based on an affidavit by Meuwese. The devices was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent within the Athlone industrial spot, which housed several of Stemmet’s firms in addition to a new “minstrel museum”, Based on a leaked investigative report commissioned through the NLC. The investigator also photographed the products at the new premises.
On the other hand, the intended new museum internet site, similar to the previous a single in Wetton, was effectively far from any of Cape City’s tourist routes and guests couldn't entry it. There was no signage around the building indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s corporations vacated the premises earlier this calendar year right after he fell unwell.
The funding to establish a museum was not the only real lottery grant that the CTMCA acquired. In 2021, the Affiliation was allotted R100,000 and R1.five-million in Covid relief grants. The NLC originally refused to expose who had received Covid funding but ultimately relented below media and parliamentary force.
Other lottery grants allotted to non-profit entities connected to Stemmet and his loved ones and his associates include R1.four-million for the Cape Cultural Carnival and Activities Committee in 2019/20, and a further R500,000 in 2021/22, In line with NLC yearly studies. Stemmet can be a former director of the committee and his spouse, Zainonesa, is at the moment a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Association, that is registered at the CTMCA’s previous Crete Road places of work, was allocated R190,000 in 2019/twenty, and a further R635,000 in 2021/22 for a “craft, woodwork and design and style programme”. Nevertheless, it seems that the 2021/22 payment was withheld after the NLC elevated questions on exceptional experiences linked to before funding received with the CTMCA.
GroundUp has verified which the SIU is investigating the lottery funding received from the CTMCA.
Also less than investigation is often a R1-million payment via the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which subsequently compensated R500,000 of the to attorneys acting in the acquisition of the R27-million mansion for former NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted for a conduit for an extra R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, an organization where the wife of former NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, to the acquisition on the mansion. Zibsimanzi obtained R4.eight-million to stage a rural soccer Match in Limpopo soon after Letwaba personally advisable that the grant be paid out to his spouse’s organization.
GroundUp despatched questions to Stemmet by means of SMS but he had not replied by the time of publication.