“Pot” Stemmet faces prices around theft of Lottery-funded tools
“Pot” Stemmet faces prices around theft of Lottery-funded tools
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Richard “Pot” Stemmet, remaining, and an investigator appointed with the National Lotteries Fee to investigate the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Image from an investigative report commissioned because of the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is struggling with prosecution after tools paid out for with funds in the Lottery was faraway from a Cape City constructing he rented.
Stemmet is to seem in court in January.
According to a prosecutor the felony costs could include fraud, elimination of kit that had been connected via the Sheriff and interfering by using a Town of Cape City electrical power meter.
The fees stem from the criticism laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, within a civil courtroom subject, is seeking to recover above R2.5-million in unpaid rent, interest, legal costs and harm to a rented setting up in Crete Highway, in the commercial location of Wetton in Cape Town.
The building was Beforehand the headquarters with the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA) which is in which a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s hundreds of years-old minstrel lifestyle was supposedly operating.
Convicted felony Richard “Pot” Stemmet is dealing with prosecution for theft and fraud just after tools compensated for with Lottery resources was removed from a Cape Town making.
Stemmet was arrested from the Specialised Industrial Criminal offense Device on sixteen Oct 2024 and instructed to look within the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on 21 November.
GroundUp attended court around the day however the issue was not put on the court docket roll since the investigating officer didn't produce the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in court docket in January.
The prison prices stem from a complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that is trying to find to Get well about R2.5-million in unpaid rent, curiosity, legal fees and damage to a rented building in Crete Highway, in the economic area of Wetton in Cape City.
The constructing was Earlier the headquarters in the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is when a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s hundreds of years-previous minstrel tradition was supposedly functioning.
The premises also housed many businesses owned by Stemmet, whom police have referred to as a medicines significant flier. Among the businesses Stemmet ran from the premises were a hat production enterprise along with a nightclub. Stemmet has become arrested many periods for gun and drug-linked 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 appear in courtroom on thirty January 2025.
Even though Stemmet is nonetheless to get introduced using a demand sheet, feasible fees, include fraud, removal of equipment that had been connected via the Sheriff, and interfering with a City of Cape City energy meter, according to an email despatched to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor dealing with the make a difference.
A grant of almost R13-million to ascertain the minstrel museum was Portion of greater than R64-million in Lottery resources allocated into the CTMCA among 2003 and 2017, with the majority of the money - about R54.3-million - paid out during the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 fiscal years, In line with Countrywide Lotteries Fee (NLC) annual reviews.
Stemmet was appointed a director on the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His spouse Zainonesa and daughter Raziah ongoing หวย ลาว ออก วัน นี้ สด 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 certainly one of the directors. The corporate was deregistered by the businesses and Mental Residence Fee (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in publishing yearly stories.
A completely new entity with the same identify was subsequently registered as A personal corporation, but with Stemmet no more a director, In accordance with CIPC records. Instead, a relative, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk have been appointed as directors.
To the evening of 12 April 2021 and into the subsequent morning, the Crete Highway premises had been cleared as well as machinery was taken off, Based on an affidavit by Meuwese. The devices was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent in the Athlone industrial spot, which housed quite a few of Stemmet’s companies as well as a new “minstrel museum”, As outlined by a leaked investigative report commissioned via the NLC. The investigator also photographed the equipment at The brand new premises.
However, the meant new museum web page, such as outdated one particular in Wetton, was properly from any of Cape City’s vacationer routes and guests couldn't accessibility it. There was no signage on the setting up indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s firms vacated the premises before this yr just after he fell sick.
The funding to ascertain a museum wasn't the only lottery grant the CTMCA gained. In 2021, the Affiliation was allotted R100,000 and R1.5-million in Covid relief grants. The NLC in the beginning refused to reveal who had acquired Covid funding but finally relented beneath media and parliamentary force.
Other lottery grants allotted to non-profit entities linked to Stemmet and his household and his associates include things like R1.four-million for that Cape Cultural Carnival and Situations Committee in 2019/twenty, and an extra R500,000 in 2021/22, In keeping with NLC once-a-year experiences. Stemmet is often a former director from the committee and his spouse, Zainonesa, is at this time a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Association, that is registered for the CTMCA’s former Crete Street places of work, was allocated R190,000 in 2019/20, and an extra R635,000 in 2021/22 for any “craft, woodwork and design programme”. On the other hand, it seems that the 2021/22 payment was withheld after the NLC raised questions about remarkable experiences associated with previously funding acquired with the CTMCA.
GroundUp has verified the SIU is investigating the lottery funding acquired with the CTMCA.
Also underneath investigation can be 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 previous NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted like a conduit for a further R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, a firm through which the spouse of former NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, to the purchase of your mansion. Zibsimanzi obtained R4.eight-million to phase a rural soccer tournament in Limpopo immediately after Letwaba Individually advised the grant be compensated to his spouse’s business.
GroundUp sent issues to Stemmet via SMS but he had not replied by the time of publication.