“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 with the National Lotteries Commission to research the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Photograph from an investigative report commissioned because of the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is facing prosecution right after tools paid for with resources from the Lottery was faraway from a Cape Town building he rented.
Stemmet is to look in court in January.
Based on a prosecutor the prison fees could contain fraud, removing of equipment that were hooked up with the Sheriff and interfering that has a Town of Cape Town electric power meter.
The fees stem from the complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, within a civil court docket make a difference, is seeking to recover above R2.5-million in unpaid lease, fascination, lawful expenses and damage to a rented making in Crete Road, in the economic spot of Wetton in Cape City.
The building was Formerly the headquarters with the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA) and is also where by a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s hundreds of years-outdated minstrel society was supposedly functioning.
Convicted criminal Richard “Pot” Stemmet is facing prosecution for theft and fraud just after equipment compensated for with Lottery funds was removed from a Cape City building.
Stemmet was arrested from the Specialised Industrial Crime Unit on sixteen Oct 2024 and explained to to appear during the Wynberg Justice of the peace’s Court on 21 November.
GroundUp attended court docket to the day however the matter was not placed on the court docket 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 prices stem from the grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that's trying to find to Get better in excess of R2.five-million in unpaid lease, desire, legal prices and damage to a rented setting up in Crete Road, in the industrial area of Wetton in Cape City.
The setting up was previously the headquarters on the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s centuries-previous minstrel society was supposedly operating.
The premises also housed several organizations owned by Stemmet, whom law enforcement have described as a prescription drugs significant flier. Amid the companies Stemmet ran in the premises have been a hat producing business in addition to a nightclub. Stemmet has actually been arrested quite a few times for gun and drug-connected offences and served time for armed robbery from the eighties.
In keeping with an SMS despatched to Meuwese with the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in court on 30 January 2025.
Though Stemmet is however to become offered having a cost sheet, feasible rates, contain fraud, elimination of apparatus that were hooked up from the Sheriff, and interfering that has a City of Cape Town electric power meter, Based on an email sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor handling the issue.
A grant of virtually R13-million to establish the minstrel museum was A part of over R64-million in Lottery funds allotted on the CTMCA in between 2003 and 2017, with the majority of the money - about R54.3-million - paid out during the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 economic years, In line with Countrywide Lotteries Commission (NLC) annual studies.
Stemmet was appointed a director with the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His spouse Zainonesa and daughter Raziah ongoing ตรวจ หวย ลาว วัน นี้ as two of a number of administrators from the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed for a director in 2021.
In line with Meuwese, the building was leased to Stalph 164, a close corporation of which Stemmet was considered one of the administrators. The organization was deregistered by the Companies and Intellectual House Fee (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in distributing yearly stories.
A completely new entity with the exact same name was subsequently registered as A personal enterprise, but with Stemmet now not a director, As outlined by CIPC data. As an alternative, a member of the family, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk were appointed as administrators.
Around the night of 12 April 2021 and into the next morning, the Crete Street premises were being cleared plus the machinery was taken out, according to an affidavit by Meuwese. The devices was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent in the Athlone industrial spot, which housed quite a few of Stemmet’s companies plus a new “minstrel museum”, according to a leaked investigative report commissioned from the NLC. The investigator also photographed the tools at the new premises.
Nevertheless, the supposed new museum website, just like the old one in Wetton, was perfectly faraway from any of Cape Town’s vacationer routes and people could not obtain it. There was no signage to the constructing indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s companies vacated the premises previously this year immediately after he fell ill.
The funding to ascertain a museum wasn't the only real lottery grant that the CTMCA gained. In 2021, the Affiliation was allotted R100,000 and R1.5-million in Covid relief grants. The NLC originally refused to expose who experienced been given Covid funding but lastly relented below media and parliamentary strain.
Other lottery grants allocated to non-income entities connected to Stemmet and his relatives and his associates involve R1.four-million for that Cape Cultural Carnival and Functions Committee in 2019/20, and a further R500,000 in 2021/22, according to NLC once-a-year studies. Stemmet is actually a previous director with the committee and his wife, Zainonesa, is now a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Association, which is registered for the CTMCA’s former Crete Street places of work, was allocated R190,000 in 2019/20, and an additional R635,000 in 2021/22 for a “craft, woodwork and layout programme”. However, it appears that the 2021/22 payment was withheld following the NLC elevated questions on superb reports linked to previously funding acquired because of the CTMCA.
GroundUp has verified the SIU is investigating the lottery funding acquired with the CTMCA.
Also underneath investigation is often a R1-million payment with the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which consequently paid R500,000 of the to lawyers performing in the purchase of the R27-million mansion for former NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted as being 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, toward the purchase on the mansion. Zibsimanzi received R4.8-million to phase a rural soccer Event in Limpopo right after Letwaba Individually proposed that the grant be paid out to his wife’s corporation.
GroundUp despatched concerns to Stemmet through SMS but he experienced not replied by the time of publication.