“Pot” Stemmet faces costs in excess of theft of Lottery-funded equipment
“Pot” Stemmet faces costs in excess of theft of Lottery-funded equipment
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Richard “Pot” Stemmet, left, and an investigator appointed from the Countrywide Lotteries Commission to analyze the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Image from an investigative report commissioned by the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is experiencing prosecution right after tools paid for with funds in the Lottery was faraway from a Cape City making he rented.
Stemmet is to seem in court in January.
Based on a prosecutor the prison charges could include fraud, elimination of kit that had been hooked up with the Sheriff and interfering with a Metropolis of Cape City electrical energy meter.
The costs stem from the complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, in a very civil court docket make a difference, is trying to get to Recuperate above R2.5-million in unpaid lease, curiosity, authorized charges and damage to a rented constructing in Crete Street, in the industrial region of Wetton in Cape Town.
The building was Beforehand the headquarters of your Cape City Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA) and it is exactly where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s generations-previous minstrel society was supposedly running.
Convicted criminal Richard “Pot” Stemmet is struggling with prosecution for theft and fraud immediately after gear compensated for with Lottery funds was faraway from a Cape City creating.
Stemmet was arrested via the Specialised Commercial Criminal offense Device on sixteen Oct 2024 and told to appear from the Wynberg Justice of the peace’s Court on 21 November.
GroundUp attended court within the day even so the make any difference wasn't put on the courtroom roll because the investigating officer did not produce the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in courtroom in January.
The criminal charges stem from the grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who is looking for to recover around R2.5-million in unpaid hire, fascination, legal expenditures and damage to a rented making in Crete Highway, in the commercial region of Wetton in Cape City.
The constructing was previously the headquarters on the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the town’s hundreds of years-previous minstrel society was supposedly working.
The premises also housed many companies owned by Stemmet, whom law enforcement have described as a prescription drugs high flier. Among the the companies Stemmet ran in the premises have been a hat producing organization and also a nightclub. Stemmet has been arrested a number of instances for gun and drug-relevant offences and served time for armed theft during the nineteen eighties.
According to an SMS despatched to Meuwese with the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in court on thirty January 2025.
Even though Stemmet is however to become introduced that has a charge sheet, possible rates, include fraud, removing of equipment that were attached from the Sheriff, and interfering with a Metropolis of Cape City electric power meter, In keeping with an email sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor managing the matter.
A grant of almost R13-million to ascertain the minstrel museum was part of a lot more than R64-million in Lottery cash allocated to your CTMCA in between 2003 and 2017, with the bulk of the money - about R54.three-million - paid inside the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 financial years, Based on 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 ruay as two of a number of administrators in the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed to be a director in 2021.
As outlined by Meuwese, the creating was leased to Stalph 164, a detailed corporation of which Stemmet was considered one of the directors. The corporation was deregistered by the Companies and Intellectual Residence Fee (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in publishing once-a-year reports.
A fresh entity Along with the same identify was subsequently registered as A personal company, but with Stemmet no longer a director, Based on CIPC records. Instead, a relative, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk were being appointed as directors.
Around the night of 12 April 2021 and into the subsequent morning, the Crete Highway premises ended up cleared plus the machinery was taken off, In accordance with an affidavit by Meuwese. The equipment was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent during the Athlone industrial location, which housed quite a few of Stemmet’s companies and also a new “minstrel museum”, Based on a leaked investigative report commissioned via the NLC. The investigator also photographed the equipment at the new premises.
Nevertheless, the supposed new museum web site, such as the previous a single in Wetton, was effectively far from any of Cape Town’s vacationer routes and website visitors could not obtain it. There was no signage over the setting up indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s enterprises vacated the premises previously this calendar year immediately after he fell ill.
The funding to ascertain a museum was not the sole lottery grant which the CTMCA obtained. In 2021, the Affiliation was allotted R100,000 and R1.5-million in Covid reduction grants. The NLC in the beginning refused to reveal who had acquired Covid funding but at last relented below media and parliamentary strain.
Other lottery grants allotted to non-gain entities associated with Stemmet and his family members 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 once-a-year experiences. Stemmet is usually a previous director in the committee and his wife, Zainonesa, is currently a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Affiliation, that's registered with the CTMCA’s previous Crete Street offices, was allocated R190,000 in 2019/twenty, and a further R635,000 in 2021/22 for your “craft, woodwork and layout programme”. However, it appears that the 2021/22 payment was withheld once the NLC raised questions about fantastic experiences linked to previously funding gained by the CTMCA.
GroundUp has confirmed which the SIU is investigating the lottery funding been given by the CTMCA.
Also below investigation is actually a R1-million payment with 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 former NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted to be a conduit for an additional R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, an organization in which the spouse of former NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, to the purchase of your mansion. Zibsimanzi acquired R4.eight-million to stage a rural soccer Match in Limpopo following Letwaba Individually advised the grant be compensated to his spouse’s firm.
GroundUp despatched concerns to Stemmet through SMS but he experienced not replied by the point of publication.