“Pot” Stemmet faces fees over theft of Lottery-funded products
“Pot” Stemmet faces fees over theft of Lottery-funded products
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Richard “Pot” Stemmet, remaining, and an investigator appointed from the National Lotteries Fee to investigate the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Image from an investigative report commissioned because of the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is going through prosecution right after equipment paid out for with funds within the Lottery was removed from a Cape Town setting up he rented.
Stemmet is to appear in courtroom in January.
According to a prosecutor the legal charges could include fraud, removal of apparatus that had been attached from the Sheriff and interfering having a Metropolis of Cape City electric power meter.
The costs stem from the criticism laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, in a very civil court subject, is in search of to recover around R2.5-million in unpaid lease, fascination, lawful expenses and damage to a rented constructing in Crete Street, in the commercial spot of Wetton in Cape Town.
The making was Earlier the headquarters of your Cape City Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA) and it is in which a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s generations-outdated minstrel culture was supposedly functioning.
Convicted felony Richard “Pot” Stemmet is going through prosecution for theft and fraud soon after tools compensated for with Lottery money was faraway from a Cape Town building.
Stemmet was arrested by the Specialised Commercial Criminal offense Device on 16 Oct 2024 and informed to seem during the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court docket on 21 November.
GroundUp attended court around the working day nevertheless the matter was not placed on the court roll since the investigating officer didn't produce the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in court docket in January.
The criminal expenses stem from a criticism laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that's trying to get to Get better over R2.five-million in unpaid lease, curiosity, legal charges and harm to a rented developing in Crete Street, in the commercial place of Wetton in Cape City.
The creating was previously the headquarters with the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s hundreds of years-aged minstrel tradition was supposedly functioning.
The premises also housed numerous enterprises owned by Stemmet, whom police have referred to as a medication superior flier. Amid the businesses Stemmet ran within the premises ended up a hat manufacturing corporation as well as a nightclub. Stemmet continues to be arrested many situations for gun and drug-associated offences and served time for armed robbery while in the eighties.
As outlined by an SMS despatched to Meuwese via the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in court on thirty January 2025.
Even though Stemmet is but for being presented by using a cost sheet, doable expenses, consist of fraud, removing of equipment that had been connected by the Sheriff, and interfering that has a Town of Cape City electricity meter, In keeping with an email sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor handling the make a difference.
A grant of virtually R13-million to ascertain the minstrel museum was Section of greater than R64-million in Lottery money allocated to your CTMCA between 2003 and 2017, with the majority of The cash - around R54.three-million - paid out inside the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 economic a long time, In line with National Lotteries Commission (NLC) once-a-year studies.
Stemmet was appointed a director on the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His wife Zainonesa and daughter Raziah ongoing ruay as two of quite a few administrators from the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed being a director in 2021.
In line with Meuwese, the constructing was leased to Stalph 164, a detailed corporation of which Stemmet was among the administrators. The business was deregistered by the businesses and Intellectual Residence Commission (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in distributing once-a-year reviews.
A new entity While using the very same identify was subsequently registered as A personal business, but with Stemmet not a director, As outlined by CIPC documents. As an alternative, a loved one, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk were appointed as administrators.
Over the night of 12 April 2021 and into the next early morning, the Crete Highway premises have been cleared as well as machinery was removed, according to an affidavit by Meuwese. The equipment was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent while in the Athlone industrial region, which housed quite a few of Stemmet’s corporations as well as a new “minstrel museum”, according to a leaked investigative report commissioned through the NLC. The investigator also photographed the products at The brand new premises.
Nevertheless, the supposed new museum web site, similar to the aged a person in Wetton, was well far from any of Cape Town’s vacationer routes and visitors couldn't entry it. There was no signage to the building indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s businesses vacated the premises before this 12 months right after he fell ill.
The funding to determine a museum was not the only lottery grant which the CTMCA gained. 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 eventually relented under media and parliamentary force.
Other lottery grants allotted to non-financial gain entities linked to Stemmet and his family and his associates include things like R1.four-million for the Cape Cultural Carnival and Functions Committee in 2019/twenty, and an additional R500,000 in 2021/22, In keeping with NLC once-a-year experiences. Stemmet is usually a previous director with the committee and his wife, Zainonesa, is at this time a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Association, and that is registered for the CTMCA’s previous Crete Street offices, was allotted R190,000 in 2019/20, and an additional R635,000 in 2021/22 for your “craft, woodwork and style and design programme”. However, it seems that the 2021/22 payment was withheld after the NLC elevated questions on remarkable studies associated with previously funding received because of the CTMCA.
GroundUp has verified which the SIU is investigating the lottery funding obtained because of the CTMCA.
Also under investigation can be a R1-million payment because of the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which subsequently compensated R500,000 of the to legal professionals acting in the purchase of a R27-million mansion for former NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted as a conduit for an extra R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, a company during which 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 Event in Limpopo soon after Letwaba personally suggested the grant be paid to his wife’s company.
GroundUp sent questions to Stemmet through SMS but he experienced not replied by the time of publication.