“Pot” Stemmet faces rates over theft of Lottery-funded tools
“Pot” Stemmet faces rates over theft of Lottery-funded tools
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Richard “Pot” Stemmet, left, and an investigator appointed with the Nationwide Lotteries Commission to research the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Image from an investigative report commissioned with the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is facing prosecution just after gear paid for with money in the Lottery was removed from a Cape Town building he rented.
Stemmet is to appear in court in January.
In keeping with a prosecutor the prison prices could involve fraud, removing of equipment that were attached by the Sheriff and interfering which has a Metropolis of Cape City electrical energy meter.
The fees stem from a grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, in a very civil court subject, is trying to find to recover about R2.5-million in unpaid lease, interest, authorized costs and damage to a rented setting up in Crete Highway, in the economic location of Wetton in Cape City.
The constructing was Beforehand the headquarters of the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA) and is in which a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s centuries-outdated minstrel culture was supposedly working.
Convicted legal Richard “Pot” Stemmet is facing prosecution for theft and fraud soon after devices compensated for with Lottery resources was faraway from a Cape Town developing.
Stemmet was arrested by the Specialised Industrial Criminal offense Unit on 16 Oct 2024 and told to seem from the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court docket on 21 November.
GroundUp attended court within the working day though the matter wasn't placed on the courtroom roll because the investigating officer did not produce the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in courtroom in January.
The prison rates stem from a complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that is searching for to Get better over R2.five-million in unpaid rent, interest, legal expenses and damage to a rented developing in Crete Road, in the economic area of Wetton in Cape City.
The setting up was Earlier the headquarters of your Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s generations-outdated minstrel lifestyle was supposedly working.
The premises also housed many corporations owned by Stemmet, whom police have called a medications large flier. Among the the businesses Stemmet ran from your premises were a hat production enterprise as well as a nightclub. Stemmet continues to be arrested quite a few occasions for gun and drug-connected offences and served time for armed theft in the nineteen eighties.
In line with an SMS sent to Meuwese via the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to look in court docket on thirty January 2025.
Even though Stemmet is however for being presented having a demand sheet, probable charges, involve fraud, elimination of equipment that were attached by the Sheriff, and interfering which has a City of Cape Town electricity meter, according to an e-mail sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor handling the subject.
A grant of just about R13-million to determine the minstrel museum was Section of much more than R64-million in Lottery funds allotted on the CTMCA concerning 2003 and 2017, with the majority of the money - above R54.3-million - paid within the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 economic yrs, Based on Countrywide Lotteries Commission (NLC) annual experiences.
Stemmet was appointed a director of the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His spouse Zainonesa and daughter Raziah ongoing ตา ว จ หวย as two of several administrators in the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed as a director in 2021.
According to Meuwese, the making was leased to Stalph 164, a close corporation of which Stemmet was amongst the directors. The corporation was deregistered by the Companies and Intellectual Assets Commission (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in submitting annual studies.
A new entity Along with the exact identify was subsequently registered as A personal business, but with Stemmet no more a director, In keeping with CIPC records. Instead, a relative, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk ended up appointed as directors.
Around the night of 12 April 2021 and into the subsequent morning, the Crete Highway premises had been cleared and also the equipment was taken out, according to an affidavit by Meuwese. The products was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent within the Athlone industrial place, which housed a number of of Stemmet’s enterprises plus a new “minstrel museum”, Based on a leaked investigative report commissioned via the NLC. The investigator also photographed the equipment at the new premises.
Even so, the intended new museum web-site, just like the previous a single in Wetton, was properly from any of Cape City’s tourist routes and site visitors couldn't entry it. There was no signage within the creating indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s organizations vacated the premises before this yr after he fell unwell.
The funding to determine a museum wasn't the sole lottery grant that the CTMCA been given. In 2021, the association was allotted R100,000 and R1.five-million in Covid relief grants. The NLC initially refused to reveal who experienced received Covid funding but eventually relented below media and parliamentary tension.
Other lottery grants allocated to non-income entities associated with Stemmet and his household and his associates include R1.4-million for the Cape Cultural Carnival and Activities Committee in 2019/20, and a further R500,000 in 2021/22, In accordance with NLC yearly stories. Stemmet is often a former director in the committee and his spouse, Zainonesa, is currently a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Affiliation, that's registered within the CTMCA’s former Crete Highway workplaces, was allotted R190,000 in 2019/20, and a further R635,000 in 2021/22 for just a “craft, woodwork and style and design programme”. Even so, it appears that the 2021/22 payment was withheld following the NLC lifted questions on exceptional stories associated with earlier funding acquired because of the CTMCA.
GroundUp has verified the SIU is investigating the lottery funding been given by the CTMCA.
Also under investigation is a R1-million payment through the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which consequently paid out R500,000 of the to legal professionals acting in the acquisition of a R27-million mansion for former NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted to be a conduit for an extra R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, a business by which the spouse of former NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, to the purchase of your mansion. Zibsimanzi gained R4.eight-million to stage a rural soccer Match in Limpopo following Letwaba personally recommended that the grant be paid out to his spouse’s company.
GroundUp sent inquiries to Stemmet by using SMS but he experienced not replied by the time of publication.