“Pot” Stemmet faces fees around theft of Lottery-funded products
“Pot” Stemmet faces fees around theft of Lottery-funded products
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Richard “Pot” Stemmet, remaining, and an investigator appointed because of the National Lotteries Fee to research the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Image from an investigative report commissioned via the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is facing prosecution right after machines paid out for with resources from the Lottery was removed from a Cape City building he rented.
Stemmet is to seem in courtroom in January.
Based on a prosecutor the legal prices could consist of fraud, removal of apparatus that were connected from the Sheriff and interfering with a Metropolis of Cape Town electric power meter.
The fees stem from a complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, in a very civil court subject, is in search of to Recuperate more than R2.five-million in unpaid hire, fascination, lawful expenses and damage to a rented constructing in Crete Highway, in the industrial location of Wetton in Cape Town.
The making was previously the headquarters from the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA) which is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s generations-aged minstrel society was supposedly operating.
Convicted legal Richard “Pot” Stemmet is experiencing prosecution for theft and fraud after gear paid for with Lottery funds was faraway from a Cape Town developing.
Stemmet was arrested from the Specialised Industrial Criminal offense Unit on sixteen October 2024 and informed to seem in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Courtroom on 21 November.
GroundUp attended court docket around the working day but the make any difference wasn't put on the court docket roll as the investigating officer didn't produce the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to look in court docket in January.
The criminal fees stem from the grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who's seeking to Get better more than R2.5-million in unpaid hire, fascination, authorized expenses and damage to a rented building in Crete Road, in the commercial location of Wetton in Cape City.
The setting up was Beforehand the headquarters on the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is when a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the town’s centuries-outdated minstrel tradition was supposedly functioning.
The premises also housed quite a few corporations owned by Stemmet, whom police have called a drugs high flier. Between the companies Stemmet ran through the premises had been a hat producing corporation and also a nightclub. Stemmet is arrested a number of moments for gun and drug-linked offences and served time for armed theft in the 1980s.
In keeping with an SMS despatched to Meuwese because of the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in court on thirty January 2025.
While Stemmet is nonetheless to become presented having a charge sheet, feasible charges, include fraud, elimination of apparatus that had been connected through 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 dealing with the make a difference.
A grant of just about R13-million to ascertain the minstrel museum was Portion of more than R64-million in Lottery resources allotted into the CTMCA concerning 2003 and 2017, with the majority of The cash - in excess of R54.3-million - compensated during the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 economical decades, Based on Countrywide Lotteries Commission (NLC) once-a-year stories.
Stemmet was appointed a director on the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His wife Zainonesa and daughter Raziah ongoing หวย รัฐบาล as two of quite a few directors from the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed as a director in 2021.
According to Meuwese, the building was leased to Stalph 164, an in depth Company of which Stemmet was considered one of the administrators. The organization was deregistered by the businesses and Mental House Fee (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in submitting yearly reviews.
A different entity With all the similar identify was subsequently registered as A personal organization, but with Stemmet no more a director, In keeping with CIPC information. As a substitute, a family member, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk had been appointed as directors.
Within the evening of twelve April 2021 and into the subsequent early morning, the Crete Highway premises ended up cleared and also the equipment was taken out, In keeping with an affidavit by Meuwese. The devices 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 along with a new “minstrel museum”, As outlined by a leaked investigative report commissioned from the NLC. The investigator also photographed the devices at The brand new premises.
Even so, the meant new museum site, such as the previous one in Wetton, was nicely far from any of Cape Town’s vacationer routes and site visitors could not access it. There was no signage to the developing indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s enterprises vacated the premises previously this yr following he fell ill.
The funding to determine a museum was not the one lottery grant which the CTMCA gained. In 2021, the Affiliation was allocated R100,000 and R1.5-million in Covid reduction grants. The NLC initially refused to reveal who had received Covid funding but eventually relented below media and parliamentary force.
Other lottery grants allotted to non-revenue entities connected to Stemmet and his family and his associates incorporate R1.four-million with the Cape Cultural Carnival and Occasions Committee in 2019/20, and a further R500,000 in 2021/22, In line with NLC yearly studies. Stemmet can be a former director in the committee and his spouse, Zainonesa, is currently a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Affiliation, which happens to be registered for the CTMCA’s former Crete Highway workplaces, was allocated R190,000 in 2019/twenty, and an additional R635,000 in 2021/22 for any “craft, woodwork and design programme”. Having said that, it appears that the 2021/22 payment was withheld once the NLC raised questions about excellent stories associated with earlier funding gained by the CTMCA.
GroundUp has confirmed that the SIU is investigating the lottery funding obtained with the CTMCA.
Also underneath investigation is really a R1-million payment through the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which in turn paid R500,000 of the to attorneys acting in the purchase of the R27-million mansion for previous NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted for a conduit for an additional R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, an organization during which the spouse of former NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, towards the acquisition in the mansion. Zibsimanzi obtained R4.eight-million to phase a rural soccer Match in Limpopo following Letwaba Individually advised the grant be paid to his wife’s corporation.
GroundUp despatched queries to Stemmet by using SMS but he had not replied by the time of publication.