“Pot” Stemmet faces charges more than theft of Lottery-funded devices
“Pot” Stemmet faces charges more than theft of Lottery-funded devices
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Richard “Pot” Stemmet, remaining, and an investigator appointed via the National Lotteries Commission to analyze the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Photo from an investigative report commissioned via the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is struggling with prosecution soon after equipment paid for with money with the Lottery was faraway from a Cape City creating he rented.
Stemmet is to seem in courtroom in January.
In keeping with a prosecutor the prison costs could involve fraud, elimination of apparatus that had been attached from the Sheriff and interfering which has a Metropolis of Cape City electricity meter.
The costs stem from the complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, inside of a civil courtroom make any difference, is trying to get to Recuperate in excess of R2.5-million in unpaid rent, interest, legal charges and harm to a rented developing in Crete Street, in the commercial space of Wetton in Cape Town.
The developing was Formerly the headquarters on the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA) and is particularly exactly where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the town’s generations-old minstrel culture was supposedly working.
Convicted legal Richard “Pot” Stemmet is dealing with prosecution for theft and fraud just after gear paid for with Lottery funds was removed from a Cape Town creating.
Stemmet was arrested from the Specialised Commercial Criminal offense Device on 16 October 2024 and informed to look during the Wynberg Justice of the peace’s Court on 21 November.
GroundUp attended court on the working day but the make any difference was not put on the court roll since the investigating officer didn't deliver the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to look in court in January.
The legal rates stem from a complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who's searching for to Get better around R2.5-million in unpaid rent, interest, legal fees and damage to a rented setting up in Crete Road, in the industrial location of Wetton in Cape Town.
The constructing was Formerly the headquarters on the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is when a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s generations-previous minstrel tradition was supposedly operating.
The premises also housed several companies owned by Stemmet, whom law enforcement have referred to as a medicines large flier. Among the the businesses Stemmet ran within the premises had been a hat production company plus a nightclub. Stemmet has been arrested many times for gun and drug-connected offences and served time for armed robbery within the eighties.
According to an SMS despatched to Meuwese because of the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in court docket on 30 January 2025.
Although Stemmet is yet to generally be offered with a cost sheet, possible expenses, include fraud, removal of apparatus that were connected by the Sheriff, and interfering by using a Metropolis of Cape City electrical energy meter, In keeping with an electronic mail sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor handling the subject.
A grant of just about R13-million to ascertain the minstrel museum was Element of a lot more than R64-million in Lottery cash allotted towards the CTMCA in between 2003 and 2017, with the bulk of the money - over R54.3-million - paid in the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 monetary many years, In accordance with National 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 continued หวย ลาว ย้อน หลัง as two of several administrators in the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed as a director in 2021.
According to Meuwese, the making was leased to Stalph 164, a close corporation of which Stemmet was amongst the directors. The corporate was deregistered by the Companies and Intellectual House Fee (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in publishing once-a-year reviews.
A whole new entity Using the identical title was subsequently registered as A non-public firm, but with Stemmet no more a director, As outlined by CIPC documents. Rather, a member of the family, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk have been appointed as directors.
On the night of 12 April 2021 and into the following early morning, the Crete Street premises had been cleared and also the equipment was eliminated, according to an affidavit by Meuwese. The products was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent within the Athlone industrial place, which housed numerous of Stemmet’s corporations along with a new “minstrel museum”, As outlined by a leaked investigative report commissioned by the NLC. The investigator also photographed the gear at the new premises.
Nonetheless, the intended new museum web-site, such as aged 1 in Wetton, was effectively from any of Cape Town’s vacationer routes and people could not access it. There was no signage on the building indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s enterprises vacated the premises previously this calendar year soon after he fell unwell.
The funding to ascertain a museum wasn't the only real lottery grant that the CTMCA gained. In 2021, the association was allocated R100,000 and R1.5-million in Covid reduction grants. The NLC initially refused to reveal who had gained Covid funding but lastly relented beneath media and parliamentary tension.
Other lottery grants allotted to non-profit entities linked to Stemmet and his loved ones and his associates incorporate R1.4-million to the Cape Cultural Carnival and Functions Committee in 2019/20, and a further R500,000 in 2021/22, Based on NLC annual experiences. Stemmet is usually a previous director in the committee and his wife, Zainonesa, is now a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Association, that is registered within the CTMCA’s former Crete Street offices, was allocated R190,000 in 2019/twenty, and a further R635,000 in 2021/22 for any “craft, woodwork and style programme”. On the other hand, it seems that the 2021/22 payment was withheld after the NLC elevated questions on superb reports connected with previously funding gained by the CTMCA.
GroundUp has confirmed which the SIU is investigating the lottery funding been given by the CTMCA.
Also under investigation is really a R1-million payment by the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which subsequently paid out R500,000 of this to lawyers performing in the purchase of the R27-million mansion for previous NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted as being a conduit for an extra R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, a firm during which the spouse of former NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, to the purchase of your mansion. Zibsimanzi acquired R4.eight-million to phase a rural soccer tournament in Limpopo just after Letwaba personally encouraged which the grant be paid to his wife’s corporation.
GroundUp despatched concerns to Stemmet by means of SMS but he experienced not replied by the point of publication.