“Pot” Stemmet faces rates over theft of Lottery-funded products
“Pot” Stemmet faces rates over theft of Lottery-funded products
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Richard “Pot” Stemmet, remaining, and an investigator appointed by the Countrywide Lotteries Fee to research the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Image from an investigative report commissioned with the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is dealing with prosecution following products compensated for with funds with the Lottery was faraway from a Cape Town making he rented.
Stemmet is to look in court in January.
In line with a prosecutor the felony rates could contain fraud, removal of equipment that had been hooked up via the Sheriff and interfering with a Town of Cape Town electrical power meter.
The costs stem from a grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, inside a civil courtroom make a difference, is looking for to Get well more than R2.5-million in unpaid hire, interest, legal expenses and damage to a rented making in Crete Highway, in the industrial spot of Wetton in Cape City.
The building was Formerly the headquarters on the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA) and is also the place a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the town’s centuries-aged minstrel lifestyle was supposedly running.
Convicted legal Richard “Pot” Stemmet is going through prosecution for theft and fraud just after devices paid out for with Lottery funds was faraway from a Cape Town building.
Stemmet was arrested because of the Specialised Commercial Criminal offense Unit on sixteen October 2024 and informed to look from the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court docket on 21 November.
GroundUp attended courtroom on the day even so the make a difference wasn't placed on the courtroom roll as the investigating officer didn't deliver the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in court in January.
The criminal expenses stem from the criticism laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that's in search of to Get better more than R2.5-million in unpaid lease, curiosity, authorized charges and harm to a rented constructing in Crete Street, in the commercial location of Wetton in Cape City.
The building was Beforehand the headquarters of your Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s generations-previous minstrel culture was supposedly running.
The premises also housed many corporations owned by Stemmet, whom police have called a medicines higher flier. Amongst the businesses Stemmet ran with the premises were being a hat manufacturing business plus a nightclub. Stemmet has been arrested several occasions for gun and drug-connected offences and served time for armed robbery within the nineteen eighties.
Based on an SMS despatched to Meuwese via the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in court on thirty January 2025.
Though Stemmet is however to be introduced using a demand sheet, doable costs, involve fraud, elimination of kit that had been connected by the Sheriff, and interfering by using a Town of Cape City electrical energy meter, In keeping with an e-mail sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor dealing with the make any difference.
A grant of just about R13-million to determine the minstrel museum was part of a lot more than R64-million in Lottery money allocated for the CTMCA among 2003 and 2017, with the bulk of the money - above R54.3-million - paid within the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 economic a long time, In line with Nationwide Lotteries Fee (NLC) annual stories.
Stemmet was appointed a director with the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His spouse Zainonesa and daughter Raziah continued ตรวจ หวย as two of numerous administrators of your organisation. Stemmet was reappointed for a director in 2021.
According to Meuwese, the setting up was leased to Stalph 164, an in depth Company of which Stemmet was one among the administrators. The business was deregistered by the businesses and Intellectual Residence Fee (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in distributing annual stories.
A fresh entity While using the exact same name was subsequently registered as A non-public corporation, but with Stemmet no more a director, As outlined by CIPC documents. Instead, a member of the family, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk have been appointed as directors.
Within the evening of 12 April 2021 and into the subsequent early morning, the Crete Road premises have been cleared and the equipment was eradicated, In keeping with an affidavit by Meuwese. The tools was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent during the Athlone industrial spot, which housed a number of of Stemmet’s businesses and also a new “minstrel museum”, In accordance with a leaked investigative report commissioned via the NLC. The investigator also photographed the products at The brand new premises.
Nevertheless, the intended new museum site, much like the aged one in Wetton, was nicely far from any of Cape Town’s vacationer routes and guests could not accessibility it. There was no signage over the setting up indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s organizations vacated the premises earlier this year after he fell unwell.
The funding to ascertain a museum wasn't the only lottery grant which the CTMCA acquired. In 2021, the Affiliation was allocated R100,000 and R1.five-million in Covid relief grants. The NLC to begin with refused to reveal who had been given Covid funding but eventually relented underneath media and parliamentary pressure.
Other lottery grants allocated to non-financial gain entities linked to Stemmet and his household and his associates consist of R1.4-million to the Cape Cultural Carnival and Events Committee in 2019/20, and a further R500,000 in 2021/22, In accordance with NLC yearly reviews. Stemmet is often a previous director with the committee and his wife, Zainonesa, is at the moment a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Association, which happens to be registered within the CTMCA’s former Crete Road places of work, was allocated R190,000 in 2019/twenty, and a further R635,000 in 2021/22 to get a “craft, woodwork and design programme”. Having said that, it appears that the 2021/22 payment was withheld once the NLC raised questions on outstanding studies connected with before funding obtained from the CTMCA.
GroundUp has confirmed the SIU is investigating the lottery funding gained by the CTMCA.
Also below investigation is often a R1-million payment by the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which in turn compensated R500,000 of the to lawyers performing in the acquisition of the R27-million mansion for former NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted for a conduit for an additional R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, a business through which the wife of former NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, towards the acquisition on the mansion. Zibsimanzi gained R4.8-million to phase a rural soccer tournament in Limpopo following Letwaba Individually suggested which the grant be paid to his wife’s enterprise.
GroundUp sent questions to Stemmet by using SMS but he had not replied by the time of publication.