“Pot” Stemmet faces costs above theft of Lottery-funded devices
“Pot” Stemmet faces costs above theft of Lottery-funded devices
Blog Article
Richard “Pot” Stemmet, left, and an investigator appointed from the Countrywide Lotteries Commission to investigate the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Photo from an investigative report commissioned through the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is experiencing prosecution following gear compensated for with resources from the Lottery was faraway from a Cape City setting up he rented.
Stemmet is to seem in court in January.
Based on a prosecutor the felony expenses could incorporate fraud, removal of apparatus that were attached via the Sheriff and interfering that has a Metropolis of Cape Town electrical energy meter.
The fees stem from the complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, in a very civil court subject, is trying to find to recover above R2.5-million in unpaid rent, interest, authorized charges and damage to a rented creating in Crete Road, in the economic space of Wetton in Cape City.
The creating was previously the headquarters of your Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA) which is in which a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s hundreds of years-old minstrel culture was supposedly running.
Convicted legal Richard “Pot” Stemmet is dealing with prosecution for theft and fraud right after products compensated for with Lottery funds was removed from a Cape Town making.
Stemmet was arrested by the Specialised Industrial Criminal offense Unit on sixteen October 2024 and advised to look inside the Wynberg Justice of the peace’s Court on 21 November.
GroundUp attended court on the day however the matter was not put on the court docket roll as the investigating officer didn't supply the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in courtroom in January.
The felony prices stem from the complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that's seeking to Recuperate about R2.five-million in unpaid rent, interest, lawful expenses and damage to a rented creating in Crete Street, in the industrial area of Wetton in Cape Town.
The developing was Earlier the headquarters from the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s hundreds of years-aged minstrel tradition was supposedly running.
The premises also housed several firms owned by Stemmet, whom police have referred to as a medicine superior flier. Amongst the companies Stemmet ran within the premises were a hat production business plus a nightclub. Stemmet has long been arrested several occasions for gun and drug-connected offences and served time for armed theft from the eighties.
Based on an SMS despatched to Meuwese from the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in court docket on 30 January 2025.
Whilst Stemmet is still to become offered that has a charge sheet, doable charges, include things like fraud, removal of equipment that were hooked up by the Sheriff, and interfering having a City of Cape City electricity meter, Based on an email despatched to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor handling the make a difference.
A grant of just about R13-million to ascertain the minstrel museum was A part of greater than R64-million in Lottery cash allocated to your CTMCA among 2003 and 2017, with the majority of the money - about R54.3-million - paid out in the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 fiscal many years, As outlined by 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 ล้อ ต เต อ รี่ as two of many directors on the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed as being a director in 2021.
In keeping with Meuwese, the creating was leased to Stalph 164, an in depth Company of which Stemmet was certainly one of the directors. The corporate was deregistered by the businesses and Mental Assets Fee (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in publishing once-a-year reports.
A brand new entity Together with the very same name was subsequently registered as a private company, but with Stemmet no longer a director, In keeping with CIPC documents. As a substitute, a member of the family, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk had been appointed as administrators.
About the evening of 12 April 2021 and into the subsequent morning, the Crete Street premises had been cleared as well as machinery was taken out, Based on an affidavit by Meuwese. The products was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent in the Athlone industrial location, which housed various of Stemmet’s businesses plus a new “minstrel museum”, In keeping with a leaked investigative report commissioned by the NLC. The investigator also photographed the gear at The brand new premises.
However, the supposed new museum site, like the aged just one in Wetton, was very well from any of Cape Town’s vacationer routes and site visitors could not entry it. There was no signage within the building indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s corporations vacated the premises earlier this 12 months after he fell sick.
The funding to determine a museum wasn't the sole lottery grant the CTMCA been given. In 2021, the association was allocated R100,000 and R1.5-million in Covid reduction grants. The NLC in the beginning refused to expose who experienced obtained Covid funding but last but not least relented less than media and parliamentary tension.
Other lottery grants allotted to non-profit entities linked to Stemmet and his family members and his associates contain R1.4-million for the Cape Cultural Carnival and Events Committee in 2019/twenty, and an additional R500,000 in 2021/22, In line with NLC annual experiences. Stemmet is usually a former director from the committee and his spouse, Zainonesa, is at the moment a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Affiliation, and that is registered on the CTMCA’s previous Crete Road workplaces, was allotted R190,000 in 2019/twenty, and a further R635,000 in 2021/22 for your “craft, woodwork and style programme”. Having said that, it appears that the 2021/22 payment was withheld after the NLC elevated questions about remarkable experiences linked to previously funding acquired because of the CTMCA.
GroundUp has verified the SIU is investigating the lottery funding acquired with the CTMCA.
Also beneath investigation can be a R1-million payment with the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which in turn compensated 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 recommended that the grant be paid out to his wife’s enterprise.
GroundUp despatched concerns to Stemmet through SMS but he had not replied by the time of publication.