“Pot” Stemmet faces rates over theft of Lottery-funded tools
“Pot” Stemmet faces rates over theft of Lottery-funded tools
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Richard “Pot” Stemmet, still left, and an investigator appointed because of the National Lotteries Commission to investigate the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Photograph from an investigative report commissioned through the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is experiencing prosecution following equipment compensated for with cash through the Lottery was removed from a Cape City creating he rented.
Stemmet is to look in courtroom in January.
In accordance with a prosecutor the criminal prices could incorporate fraud, removing of equipment that were hooked up from the Sheriff and interfering that has a Town of Cape Town electrical power meter.
The fees stem from the criticism laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, inside a civil court issue, is trying to get to recover more than R2.5-million in unpaid hire, desire, lawful expenditures and harm to a rented constructing in Crete Road, in the industrial space of Wetton in Cape City.
The constructing was previously the headquarters of the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA) and is particularly wherever a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s generations-previous minstrel society was supposedly working.
Convicted prison Richard “Pot” Stemmet is dealing with prosecution for theft and fraud just after tools paid out for with Lottery resources was removed from a Cape Town constructing.
Stemmet was arrested via the Specialised Commercial Crime Unit on 16 October 2024 and advised to seem while in the Wynberg Justice of the peace’s Courtroom on 21 November.
GroundUp attended courtroom about the day even so the subject was not placed on the court docket roll since the investigating officer did not deliver the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to look in courtroom in January.
The criminal rates stem from a complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that is searching for to recover about R2.5-million in unpaid hire, interest, authorized expenses and damage to a rented building in Crete Street, in the economic region of Wetton in Cape City.
The setting up was Formerly the headquarters with the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s centuries-previous minstrel tradition was supposedly running.
The premises also housed various businesses owned by Stemmet, whom police have called a drugs higher flier. Among the companies Stemmet ran within the premises were being a hat production firm plus a nightclub. Stemmet has become arrested a number of times for gun and drug-linked offences and served time for armed robbery during the 1980s.
According to an SMS sent to Meuwese via the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in courtroom on thirty January 2025.
Although Stemmet is but to generally be presented using a cost sheet, probable costs, contain fraud, elimination of apparatus that had been attached through the Sheriff, and interfering by using a Metropolis of Cape Town electrical energy meter, In line with an e-mail sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor managing the subject.
A grant of virtually R13-million to establish the minstrel museum was Element of in excess of R64-million in Lottery money allotted on the CTMCA in between 2003 and 2017, with the majority of the money - about R54.three-million - paid during the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 economic decades, In accordance with Countrywide Lotteries Fee (NLC) once-a-year reviews.
Stemmet was appointed a director on the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His spouse Zainonesa and daughter Raziah ongoing ltpbet as two of several directors of your organisation. Stemmet was reappointed like a director in 2021.
According to Meuwese, the constructing was leased to Stalph 164, a detailed Company of which Stemmet was among 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 stories.
A completely new entity Using the exact same name was subsequently registered as A personal enterprise, but with Stemmet no more a director, As outlined by CIPC information. As an alternative, a family member, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk were being appointed as directors.
On the night of twelve April 2021 and into the next early morning, the Crete Road premises ended up cleared along with the equipment was eliminated, In keeping with an affidavit by Meuwese. The tools was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent from the Athlone industrial region, which housed many of Stemmet’s enterprises and a new “minstrel museum”, In line with a leaked investigative report commissioned because of the NLC. The investigator also photographed the machines at The brand new premises.
Having said that, the intended new museum web-site, similar to the outdated one in Wetton, was nicely far from any of Cape Town’s vacationer routes and site visitors could not accessibility it. There was no signage to the building indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s companies vacated the premises earlier this calendar year just after he fell sick.
The funding to establish a museum was not the one lottery grant that the CTMCA obtained. In 2021, the association was allotted R100,000 and R1.5-million in Covid reduction grants. The NLC to begin with refused to reveal who had been given Covid funding but at last relented beneath media and parliamentary pressure.
Other lottery grants allotted to non-income entities associated with Stemmet and his loved ones and his associates involve R1.four-million for that Cape Cultural Carnival and Situations Committee in 2019/twenty, and an additional R500,000 in 2021/22, As outlined by NLC yearly experiences. Stemmet is usually a former director on the committee and his wife, Zainonesa, is at this time a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Association, which can be registered in the CTMCA’s previous Crete Road places of work, was allocated R190,000 in 2019/twenty, and an extra R635,000 in 2021/22 for the “craft, woodwork and style programme”. However, it appears that the 2021/22 payment was withheld following the NLC lifted questions on excellent studies related to earlier funding obtained with the CTMCA.
GroundUp has confirmed the SIU is investigating the lottery funding acquired through the CTMCA.
Also beneath investigation is often a R1-million payment because of the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which consequently paid R500,000 of the to attorneys acting in the acquisition of a R27-million mansion for previous NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted being a conduit for a further R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, a corporation wherein the wife of previous NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, in direction of the purchase with the mansion. Zibsimanzi obtained R4.eight-million to phase a rural soccer tournament in Limpopo after Letwaba personally recommended that the grant be paid out to his spouse’s organization.
GroundUp despatched thoughts to Stemmet through SMS but he experienced not replied by the point of publication.