“Pot” Stemmet faces rates more than theft of Lottery-funded devices
“Pot” Stemmet faces rates more than theft of Lottery-funded devices
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Richard “Pot” Stemmet, left, and an investigator appointed with the Nationwide Lotteries Fee to research the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Photograph from an investigative report commissioned from the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is struggling with prosecution just after products compensated for with resources in the Lottery was removed from a Cape Town making he rented.
Stemmet is to seem in court docket in January.
According to a prosecutor the criminal costs could involve fraud, removing of apparatus that were connected through the Sheriff and interfering using a City of Cape Town electrical energy meter.
The fees stem from a grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, within a civil court docket make a difference, is trying to get to Recuperate in excess of R2.five-million in unpaid rent, curiosity, authorized expenditures and harm to a rented setting up in Crete Road, in the economic space of Wetton in Cape City.
The making was Earlier the headquarters on the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA) and is particularly wherever a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the town’s centuries-aged minstrel tradition was supposedly operating.
Convicted prison Richard “Pot” Stemmet is experiencing prosecution for theft and fraud right after gear paid out for with Lottery funds was removed from a Cape City setting up.
Stemmet was arrested through the Specialised Professional Criminal offense Unit on 16 October 2024 and instructed to look inside the Wynberg Magistrate’s Courtroom on 21 November.
GroundUp attended courtroom about the day although the make any difference wasn't put on the courtroom roll since the investigating officer did not produce the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in court docket in January.
The prison prices stem from a complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that's trying to find to Recuperate more than R2.five-million in unpaid rent, fascination, legal prices and damage to a rented building in Crete Street, in the industrial spot of Wetton in Cape City.
The creating was Beforehand the headquarters in the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the town’s hundreds of years-aged minstrel culture was supposedly working.
The premises also housed several organizations owned by Stemmet, whom police have referred to as a medicine superior flier. Among the businesses Stemmet ran from your premises have been a hat production firm and also a nightclub. Stemmet has actually been arrested various moments for gun and drug-connected offences and served time for armed theft while in the 1980s.
According to an SMS sent to Meuwese by the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in court docket on 30 January 2025.
While Stemmet is however to generally be presented by using a demand sheet, feasible fees, include fraud, elimination of kit that were hooked up from the Sheriff, and interfering that has a City of Cape Town electrical energy meter, In line with an e-mail sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor handling the make a difference.
A grant of almost R13-million to determine the minstrel museum was Component of much more than R64-million in Lottery cash allocated into the CTMCA involving 2003 and 2017, with the bulk of The cash - in excess of R54.three-million - paid out in the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 fiscal many years, In keeping with National Lotteries Fee (NLC) once-a-year reports.
Stemmet was appointed a director on the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His spouse Zainonesa and daughter Raziah ongoing ตรวจ สลากกินแบ่ง รัฐบาล as two of several administrators on the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed as being a director in 2021.
Based on Meuwese, the setting up was leased to Stalph 164, a close Company of which Stemmet was certainly one of the directors. The company was deregistered by the Companies and Mental Property Commission (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in distributing yearly stories.
A new entity With all the similar identify was subsequently registered as A personal enterprise, but with Stemmet now not a director, according to CIPC documents. In its place, a relative, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk ended up appointed as directors.
On the night of 12 April 2021 and into the next early morning, the Crete Road premises had been cleared along with the equipment was taken off, In line with an affidavit by Meuwese. The gear was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent in the Athlone industrial space, which housed numerous of Stemmet’s enterprises as well as a new “minstrel museum”, In keeping with a leaked investigative report commissioned from the NLC. The investigator also photographed the products at The brand new premises.
Having said that, the meant new museum website, similar to the aged 1 in Wetton, was properly faraway from any of Cape City’s tourist routes and people couldn't accessibility it. There was no signage about the setting up indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s enterprises vacated the premises previously this year after he fell sick.
The funding to ascertain a museum wasn't the sole lottery grant that the CTMCA gained. In 2021, the association was allocated R100,000 and R1.five-million in Covid reduction grants. The NLC initially refused to reveal who had received Covid funding but eventually relented below media and parliamentary tension.
Other lottery grants allotted to non-earnings entities connected to Stemmet and his spouse and children and his associates consist of R1.4-million to the Cape Cultural Carnival and Gatherings Committee in 2019/twenty, and an extra R500,000 in 2021/22, according to NLC annual reports. Stemmet is really a former director of the committee and his spouse, Zainonesa, is at this time a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Association, which can be registered on the CTMCA’s previous Crete Street offices, was allotted R190,000 in 2019/20, and an extra R635,000 in 2021/22 for the “craft, woodwork and design and style programme”. However, it seems that the 2021/22 payment was withheld following the NLC lifted questions about remarkable reports connected to before funding obtained with the CTMCA.
GroundUp has verified the SIU is investigating the lottery funding received through the CTMCA.
Also underneath investigation is a R1-million payment from the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which consequently paid R500,000 of the to legal professionals acting in the purchase of the R27-million mansion for previous NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted for a conduit for an extra R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, a firm where the wife of previous NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, toward the purchase of the mansion. Zibsimanzi received R4.eight-million to stage a rural soccer Match in Limpopo just after Letwaba Individually proposed the grant be compensated to his wife’s enterprise.
GroundUp sent issues to Stemmet via SMS but he had not replied by the time of publication.