“Pot” Stemmet faces prices around theft of Lottery-funded products
“Pot” Stemmet faces prices around theft of Lottery-funded products
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Richard “Pot” Stemmet, left, and an investigator appointed via the Nationwide Lotteries Commission to research the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Picture from an investigative report commissioned via the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is facing prosecution soon after devices paid out for with cash within the Lottery was faraway from a Cape City making he rented.
Stemmet is to seem in court in January.
According to a prosecutor the felony prices could include things like fraud, elimination of equipment that were attached via the Sheriff and interfering using a Town of Cape Town energy meter.
The charges stem from a grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, in a very civil court docket make a difference, is seeking to Get well about R2.five-million in unpaid rent, curiosity, authorized prices and damage to a rented making in Crete Highway, in the economic place of Wetton in Cape Town.
The constructing was Earlier the headquarters from the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA) and is particularly exactly where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the town’s hundreds of years-outdated minstrel lifestyle was supposedly running.
Convicted legal Richard “Pot” Stemmet is struggling with prosecution for theft and fraud soon after products paid for with Lottery funds was faraway from a Cape Town creating.
Stemmet was arrested because of the Specialised Business Crime Device on 16 October 2024 and told to look from the Wynberg Justice of the peace’s Court on 21 November.
GroundUp attended courtroom to the working day even so the issue wasn't placed on the court roll because the investigating officer didn't produce the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in court docket in January.
The prison costs stem from a complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who is in search of to Recuperate in excess of R2.5-million in unpaid rent, fascination, legal charges and harm to a rented building in Crete Highway, in the industrial region of Wetton in Cape City.
The making was Earlier the headquarters with the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s generations-previous minstrel society was supposedly running.
The premises also housed numerous businesses owned by Stemmet, whom police have called a medications higher flier. Among the businesses Stemmet ran from the premises had been a hat producing company in addition to a nightclub. Stemmet continues to be arrested various periods for gun and drug-similar offences and served time for armed theft from the eighties.
Based on an SMS sent to Meuwese from the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to look in courtroom on thirty January 2025.
Whilst Stemmet is nonetheless to get introduced using a demand sheet, feasible prices, contain fraud, removing of equipment that had been connected by the Sheriff, and interfering using a Metropolis of Cape Town electric power meter, Based on an email sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor managing the make any difference.
A grant of just about R13-million to determine the minstrel museum was Element of more than R64-million in Lottery resources allotted for the CTMCA in between 2003 and 2017, with the majority of the money - more than R54.three-million - paid out inside the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 monetary a long time, In line with Nationwide Lotteries Fee (NLC) yearly reviews.
Stemmet was appointed a director of your CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His wife Zainonesa and daughter Raziah ongoing ตรวจ สลากกินแบ่ง รัฐบาล as two of numerous directors with the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed being a director in 2021.
In line with Meuwese, the creating was leased to Stalph 164, a detailed corporation of which Stemmet was certainly one of the administrators. The organization was deregistered by the businesses and Mental Home Fee (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in publishing annual studies.
A new entity Along with the exact same title was subsequently registered as A non-public firm, but with Stemmet no more a director, according to CIPC information. In its place, a relative, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk were appointed as administrators.
Over the night of 12 April 2021 and into the following early morning, the Crete Street premises have been cleared as well as equipment was taken off, As outlined by an affidavit by Meuwese. The products was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent while in the Athlone industrial area, which housed quite a few of Stemmet’s corporations as well as a new “minstrel museum”, In keeping with a leaked investigative report commissioned through the NLC. The investigator also photographed the machines at The brand new premises.
Nonetheless, the intended new museum web page, just like the previous just one in Wetton, was well away from any of Cape Town’s tourist routes and guests could not obtain it. There was no signage on the creating indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s organizations vacated the premises earlier this calendar year just after he fell unwell.
The funding to ascertain a museum was not the one lottery grant that the CTMCA been given. In 2021, the association was allotted R100,000 and R1.5-million in Covid aid grants. The NLC to begin with refused to reveal who had been given Covid funding but at last relented beneath media and parliamentary pressure.
Other lottery grants allocated to non-profit entities connected to Stemmet and his relatives and his associates consist of R1.4-million to the Cape Cultural Carnival and Occasions Committee in 2019/20, and an additional R500,000 in 2021/22, In keeping with NLC once-a-year reports. Stemmet is really a previous 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 in 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 just a “craft, woodwork and style and design programme”. Even so, it seems that the 2021/22 payment was withheld following the NLC elevated questions about remarkable reviews relevant to earlier funding gained through the CTMCA.
GroundUp has verified which the SIU is investigating the lottery funding received through the CTMCA.
Also underneath investigation is usually a R1-million payment from the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which consequently paid out R500,000 of this to attorneys acting in the acquisition of the R27-million mansion for former NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted as being a conduit for a further R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, a company in which the spouse of former NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, to the acquisition in the mansion. Zibsimanzi received R4.8-million to phase a rural soccer Match in Limpopo after Letwaba Individually advised which the grant be paid out to his spouse’s firm.
GroundUp despatched inquiries to Stemmet via SMS but he had not replied by the time of publication.