“Pot” Stemmet faces expenses in excess of theft of Lottery-funded equipment
“Pot” Stemmet faces expenses in excess of theft of Lottery-funded equipment
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Richard “Pot” Stemmet, still left, and an investigator appointed through the National Lotteries Commission to research the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Photo from an investigative report commissioned via the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is going through prosecution right after products paid out for with money through the Lottery was removed from a Cape City setting up he rented.
Stemmet is to seem in court in January.
Based on a prosecutor the prison rates could include things like fraud, elimination of kit that had been connected by the Sheriff and interfering that has a City of Cape Town electricity meter.
The costs stem from the complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, in a very civil court docket make a difference, is seeking to Get better more than R2.5-million in unpaid lease, desire, lawful fees and harm to a rented making in Crete Road, in the commercial region of Wetton in Cape Town.
The building was previously the headquarters from the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA) and is exactly where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s centuries-previous minstrel culture was supposedly operating.
Convicted felony Richard “Pot” Stemmet is dealing with prosecution for theft and fraud right after devices compensated for with Lottery cash was removed from a Cape Town developing.
Stemmet was arrested through the Specialised Commercial Criminal offense Unit on sixteen October 2024 and informed to appear in the Wynberg Justice of the peace’s Courtroom on 21 November.
GroundUp attended court docket within the working day however the make any difference was not placed on the courtroom roll since the investigating officer did not supply the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to look in court docket in January.
The felony charges stem from the complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who's seeking to recover over R2.five-million in unpaid rent, interest, lawful costs and harm to a rented setting up in Crete Highway, in the economic region of Wetton in Cape City.
The making was Formerly the headquarters from the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s centuries-aged minstrel tradition was supposedly functioning.
The premises also housed quite a few firms owned by Stemmet, whom law enforcement have described as a prescription drugs higher flier. Between the businesses Stemmet ran through the premises were a hat manufacturing organization and also a nightclub. Stemmet has been arrested a number of instances for gun and drug-relevant offences and served time for armed theft during the 1980s.
In keeping with an SMS despatched to Meuwese with the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in courtroom on 30 January 2025.
Though Stemmet is nevertheless being presented which has a demand sheet, possible charges, include fraud, removing of apparatus that were hooked up with the Sheriff, and interfering by using a Town of Cape City electrical power meter, In accordance with an e mail despatched to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor managing the matter.
A grant of almost R13-million to ascertain the minstrel museum was part of a lot more than R64-million in Lottery cash allotted into the CTMCA concerning 2003 and 2017, with the majority of The cash - more than R54.3-million - paid out during the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 economical years, In line with National Lotteries Fee (NLC) yearly reports.
Stemmet was appointed a director of your CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His wife Zainonesa and daughter Raziah ongoing หวย วัน นี้ as two of quite a few administrators in the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed as being a director in 2021.
According to Meuwese, the making was leased to Stalph 164, a close corporation of which Stemmet was among the administrators. The business was deregistered by the businesses and Mental Assets Commission (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in submitting yearly experiences.
A different entity Using the very same identify was subsequently registered as A personal company, but with Stemmet no longer a director, In line with CIPC records. Rather, a family member, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk were appointed as administrators.
About the evening of twelve April 2021 and into the next early morning, the Crete Street premises have been cleared as well as the equipment was taken out, Based on an affidavit by Meuwese. The machines was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent inside the Athlone industrial space, which housed many of Stemmet’s businesses and also a new “minstrel museum”, In accordance with a leaked investigative report commissioned via the NLC. The investigator also photographed the gear at the new premises.
Even so, the intended new museum internet site, similar to the aged a person in Wetton, was well away from any of Cape City’s vacationer routes and website visitors could not obtain it. There was no signage to the making indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s enterprises vacated the premises previously this calendar year immediately after he fell ill.
The funding to determine a museum was not the one lottery grant which the CTMCA obtained. In 2021, the Affiliation was allotted R100,000 and R1.five-million in Covid relief grants. The NLC to begin with refused to expose who experienced obtained Covid funding but at last relented below media and parliamentary strain.
Other lottery grants allotted to non-profit entities linked to Stemmet and his loved ones and his associates include things like R1.four-million for that Cape Cultural Carnival and Situations Committee in 2019/twenty, and an additional R500,000 in 2021/22, As outlined by NLC yearly studies. Stemmet can be a former director from the committee and his spouse, Zainonesa, is now a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Affiliation, and that is registered on the CTMCA’s previous Crete Street offices, was allotted R190,000 in 2019/20, and an additional R635,000 in 2021/22 to get a “craft, woodwork and style and design programme”. Nonetheless, it seems that the 2021/22 payment was withheld after the NLC elevated questions on superb studies connected to before funding received through the CTMCA.
GroundUp has confirmed that the SIU is investigating the lottery funding acquired because of the CTMCA.
Also underneath investigation is usually a R1-million payment via the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which subsequently paid out R500,000 of this to lawyers performing in the acquisition of a R27-million mansion for previous NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted for a conduit for an additional R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, an organization by which the spouse of former NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, to the purchase of your mansion. Zibsimanzi acquired R4.eight-million to stage a rural soccer Match in Limpopo right after Letwaba Individually suggested the grant be compensated to his spouse’s organization.
GroundUp despatched questions to Stemmet by way of SMS but he had not replied by the time of publication.