Richard “Pot” Stemmet, still left, and an investigator appointed via the Nationwide Lotteries Commission to investigate the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Photograph from an investigative report commissioned with the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is experiencing prosecution after devices compensated for with funds from your Lottery was removed from a Cape Town setting up he rented.
Stemmet is to appear in courtroom in January.
As outlined by a prosecutor the prison costs could consist of fraud, removing of apparatus that were hooked up with the Sheriff and interfering by using a City of Cape Town electricity meter.
The costs stem from a grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, inside a civil court docket issue, is in search of to Get better more than R2.5-million in unpaid lease, desire, legal prices and damage to a rented making in Crete Highway, in the commercial space of Wetton in Cape City.
The making was Earlier the headquarters on the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA) and is also in which a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s hundreds of years-old minstrel lifestyle was supposedly operating.
Convicted felony Richard “Pot” Stemmet is dealing with prosecution for theft and fraud after products compensated for with Lottery funds was removed from a Cape Town making.
Stemmet was arrested from the Specialised Industrial Crime Unit on 16 October 2024 and instructed to look during the Wynberg Justice of the peace’s Court docket on 21 November.
GroundUp attended court docket over the working day though the make any difference wasn't placed on the court roll as the investigating officer didn't provide the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in court docket in January.
The felony expenses stem from a grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who is seeking to Get well above R2.five-million in unpaid rent, fascination, legal expenditures and damage to a rented making in Crete Road, in the commercial area of Wetton in Cape Town.
The setting up was previously the headquarters on the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is when a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s centuries-previous minstrel lifestyle was supposedly running.
The premises also housed quite a few companies owned by Stemmet, whom police have described as a medication large flier. Amid the businesses Stemmet ran from your premises had been a hat manufacturing company in addition to a nightclub. Stemmet has long been arrested various moments for gun and drug-associated offences and served time for armed theft inside the nineteen eighties.
As outlined by an SMS sent to Meuwese because of the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in courtroom on thirty January 2025.
Although Stemmet is nevertheless to be presented by using a demand sheet, possible expenses, include things like fraud, removing of kit that were hooked up by the Sheriff, and interfering having a City of Cape City electricity meter, Based on an email despatched to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor dealing with the issue.
A grant of almost R13-million to determine the minstrel museum was Component of a lot more than R64-million in Lottery funds allotted for the CTMCA between 2003 and 2017, with the majority of The cash - in excess of R54.three-million - paid out in the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 fiscal years, As outlined by Countrywide Lotteries Commission (NLC) yearly reports.
Stemmet was appointed a director of your CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His wife Zainonesa and daughter Raziah continued ตรวจ หวย ผล สลากกินแบ่ง รัฐบาล งวด as two of numerous administrators on the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed as being 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 businesses and Mental House Fee (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in submitting annual studies.
A different entity Using the very same title was subsequently registered as a private organization, but with Stemmet not a director, In accordance with CIPC information. As an alternative, a member of the family, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk have been appointed as directors.
Over the night of 12 April 2021 and into the subsequent morning, the Crete Road premises ended up cleared along with the machinery 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 place, which housed numerous of Stemmet’s corporations as well as a new “minstrel museum”, In keeping with a leaked investigative report commissioned from the NLC. The investigator also photographed the products at The brand new premises.
Having said that, the meant new museum site, just like the old one in Wetton, was well away from any of Cape City’s tourist routes and guests couldn't entry it. There was no signage within the creating indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s organizations vacated the premises earlier this calendar year immediately after he fell sick.
The funding to determine a museum was not the only lottery grant which the CTMCA obtained. In 2021, the Affiliation was allocated R100,000 and R1.five-million in Covid aid grants. The NLC at first refused to expose who experienced been given Covid funding but ultimately relented underneath media and parliamentary pressure.
Other lottery grants allocated to non-earnings entities connected to Stemmet and his family and his associates contain R1.4-million for your Cape Cultural Carnival and Functions Committee in 2019/20, and a further R500,000 in 2021/22, In line with NLC yearly studies. Stemmet can be a former director of the committee and his spouse, Zainonesa, is at present a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Affiliation, and that is registered with the CTMCA’s former Crete Street places of work, was allocated R190,000 in 2019/twenty, and a further R635,000 in 2021/22 for your “craft, woodwork and layout programme”. Nevertheless, it seems that the 2021/22 payment was withheld once the NLC raised questions about remarkable reviews connected to earlier funding obtained because of the CTMCA.
GroundUp has verified which the SIU is investigating the lottery funding received through the CTMCA.
Also beneath investigation is often a R1-million payment via the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which subsequently paid out R500,000 of this to legal professionals performing in the purchase 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 company in which the spouse of former NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, to the purchase from the mansion. Zibsimanzi received R4.8-million to phase a rural soccer tournament in Limpopo immediately after Letwaba personally advisable 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.