“Pot” Stemmet faces prices more than theft of Lottery-funded machines
“Pot” Stemmet faces prices more than theft of Lottery-funded machines
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Richard “Pot” Stemmet, still left, and an investigator appointed through the Countrywide Lotteries Fee to analyze the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Picture from an investigative report commissioned because of the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is experiencing prosecution soon after products paid for with funds with the Lottery was removed from a Cape Town setting up he rented.
Stemmet is to look in courtroom in January.
According to a prosecutor the criminal prices could involve fraud, elimination of equipment that were attached through the Sheriff and interfering with a Town of Cape Town electrical power meter.
The fees stem from a criticism laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, in the civil court docket make a difference, is searching for to Get better in excess of R2.five-million in unpaid lease, interest, authorized expenses and damage to a rented building in Crete Street, in the economic space of Wetton in Cape City.
The setting up was Beforehand the headquarters of the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA) and is particularly exactly where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s generations-outdated minstrel tradition was supposedly operating.
Convicted prison Richard “Pot” Stemmet is struggling with prosecution for theft and fraud immediately after devices paid for with Lottery cash was removed from a Cape Town creating.
Stemmet was arrested by the Specialised Business Crime Unit on 16 Oct 2024 and advised to look while in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Courtroom on 21 November.
GroundUp attended court docket around the day though the make a difference was not put on the court docket roll because the investigating officer did not deliver the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in court docket in January.
The felony fees stem from a complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that's trying to find to Get well above R2.5-million in unpaid rent, fascination, legal costs and harm to a rented constructing in Crete Road, in the economic space of Wetton in Cape Town.
The building was Earlier the headquarters from the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s centuries-previous minstrel society was supposedly working.
The premises also housed several corporations owned by Stemmet, whom law enforcement have described as a prescription drugs high flier. Between the companies Stemmet ran within the premises were being a hat producing corporation in addition to a nightclub. Stemmet has been arrested several occasions for gun and drug-associated offences and served time for armed theft from the eighties.
As outlined by an SMS despatched to Meuwese with the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in court docket on thirty January 2025.
Though Stemmet is however to generally be offered with a cost sheet, probable expenses, include fraud, elimination of apparatus that were attached because of the Sheriff, and interfering with a City of Cape Town electrical power meter, according to an email sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor handling the make a difference.
A grant of almost R13-million to establish the minstrel museum was A part of a lot more than R64-million in Lottery money allocated towards the CTMCA in between 2003 and 2017, with the bulk of The cash - about R54.3-million - paid during the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 economical several years, In accordance with Countrywide Lotteries Commission (NLC) yearly experiences.
Stemmet was appointed a director with the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His wife Zainonesa and daughter Raziah ongoing หวย วัน นี้ as two of several administrators from the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed to be a director in 2021.
According to Meuwese, the making was leased to Stalph 164, a close corporation of which Stemmet was one of the administrators. The company was deregistered by the Companies and Mental Property Commission (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in publishing annual reviews.
A completely new entity With all the same name was subsequently registered as A non-public enterprise, but with Stemmet not a director, according to CIPC information. Alternatively, a loved one, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk ended up appointed as directors.
Within the night of 12 April 2021 and into the next morning, the Crete Highway premises were being cleared and the equipment was taken off, In line with an affidavit by Meuwese. The tools was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent within the Athlone industrial space, which housed many of Stemmet’s firms plus a new “minstrel museum”, Based on a leaked investigative report commissioned because of the NLC. The investigator also photographed the equipment at the new premises.
On the other hand, the supposed new museum web site, similar to the aged one in Wetton, was very well clear of any of Cape City’s vacationer routes and guests could not access it. There was no signage on the developing indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s organizations vacated the premises earlier this calendar year just after he fell sick.
The funding to establish a museum wasn't the sole lottery grant which the CTMCA acquired. In 2021, the Affiliation was allocated R100,000 and R1.five-million in Covid aid grants. The NLC originally refused to reveal who had been given Covid funding but eventually relented below media and parliamentary tension.
Other lottery grants allocated to non-financial gain entities linked to Stemmet and his household and his associates involve R1.four-million for the Cape Cultural Carnival and Activities Committee in 2019/twenty, and an extra R500,000 in 2021/22, according to NLC annual experiences. Stemmet is really a previous director of the committee and his spouse, Zainonesa, is at the moment a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Association, which can be registered on the CTMCA’s former Crete Highway workplaces, was allocated R190,000 in 2019/twenty, and a further R635,000 in 2021/22 for just a “craft, woodwork and structure programme”. Having said that, it appears that the 2021/22 payment was withheld once the NLC elevated questions on exceptional experiences linked to previously funding received with the CTMCA.
GroundUp has verified that the SIU is investigating the lottery funding acquired because of the CTMCA.
Also less than investigation is a R1-million payment through the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which consequently paid out R500,000 of this to lawyers acting in the acquisition of the R27-million mansion for former NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted being a conduit for a further R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, an organization by which the spouse of former NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, in direction of the acquisition on the mansion. Zibsimanzi obtained R4.eight-million to stage a rural soccer Event in Limpopo soon after Letwaba personally proposed that the grant be paid out to his spouse’s organization.
GroundUp despatched concerns to Stemmet by means of SMS but he experienced not replied by the time of publication.