Richard “Pot” Stemmet, still left, and an investigator appointed with the National Lotteries Commission to investigate the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Photo from an investigative report commissioned from the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is experiencing prosecution after equipment compensated for with money from your Lottery was removed from a Cape Town developing he rented.
Stemmet is to look in court in January.
Based on a prosecutor the felony expenses could include fraud, elimination of kit that had been attached because of the Sheriff and interfering having a Metropolis of Cape Town energy meter.
The charges stem from a complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, in the civil courtroom subject, is seeking to recover more than R2.five-million in unpaid hire, desire, authorized charges and damage to a rented creating in Crete Road, in the economic place of Wetton in Cape Town.
The developing was previously the headquarters with the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA) which is in which a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s hundreds of years-aged minstrel tradition was supposedly functioning.
Convicted criminal Richard “Pot” Stemmet is experiencing prosecution for theft and fraud following devices paid 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 informed to seem while in the Wynberg Justice of the peace’s Courtroom on 21 November.
GroundUp attended courtroom about the day even so the make any difference was not put on the courtroom roll because 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 the grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that's trying to find to Recuperate over R2.5-million in unpaid hire, curiosity, lawful fees and harm to a rented building in Crete Street, in the economic region 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 town’s centuries-old minstrel tradition was supposedly working.
The premises also housed many enterprises owned by Stemmet, whom law enforcement have referred to as a medicine superior flier. Among the the companies Stemmet ran with the premises ended up a hat production business along with a nightclub. Stemmet has been arrested several periods for gun and drug-connected offences and served time for armed theft while in the 1980s.
As outlined by an SMS sent to Meuwese because of the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to look in court on 30 January 2025.
Whilst Stemmet is but being introduced with a charge sheet, attainable prices, include fraud, removal of kit that were hooked up because of the Sheriff, and interfering which has a Town of Cape City electrical power meter, As outlined by an e-mail sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor managing the subject.
A grant of virtually R13-million to establish the minstrel museum was part of much more than R64-million in Lottery cash allotted to your 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) once-a-year reviews.
Stemmet was appointed a director on the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His spouse Zainonesa and daughter Raziah ongoing ตา ว จ หวย as two of a number of administrators from the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed for a director in 2021.
In accordance with Meuwese, the setting up was leased to Stalph 164, a close corporation of which Stemmet was one among the administrators. The company was deregistered by the Companies and Intellectual Home Commission (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in submitting annual reports.
A fresh entity Together with the very same title was subsequently registered as a private company, but with Stemmet now not a director, In keeping with CIPC data. Alternatively, a member of the family, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk have been appointed as administrators.
On the evening of 12 April 2021 and into the subsequent early morning, the Crete Street premises ended up cleared and the machinery was removed, Based on an affidavit by Meuwese. The equipment was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent during the Athlone industrial place, which housed various of Stemmet’s companies plus a new “minstrel museum”, according to a leaked investigative report commissioned through the NLC. The investigator also photographed the products at the new premises.
On the other hand, the intended new museum web-site, such as outdated one particular in Wetton, was properly 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 12 months just after he fell sick.
The funding to establish a museum was not the only real lottery grant that the CTMCA gained. In 2021, the association was allocated R100,000 and R1.five-million in Covid aid grants. The NLC to begin with refused to expose who had gained Covid funding but finally relented beneath media and parliamentary tension.
Other lottery grants allotted to non-gain entities linked to Stemmet and his household and his associates involve R1.four-million with the Cape Cultural Carnival and Situations Committee in 2019/twenty, and an additional R500,000 in 2021/22, In line with NLC annual reports. Stemmet is a previous director in the committee and his spouse, Zainonesa, is at the moment a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Association, and that is registered on the CTMCA’s previous Crete Road workplaces, was allotted R190,000 in 2019/20, and an additional R635,000 in 2021/22 for a “craft, woodwork and style and design programme”. Nonetheless, it seems that the 2021/22 payment was withheld once the NLC lifted questions on excellent studies connected to before funding been given 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 from the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which in turn compensated R500,000 of this to lawyers performing in the acquisition of a R27-million mansion for previous NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted for a conduit for an additional R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, an organization by which the spouse of former NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, to the purchase of the mansion. Zibsimanzi gained R4.eight-million to stage a rural soccer Match in Limpopo right after Letwaba Individually recommended that the grant be paid out to his spouse’s enterprise.
GroundUp sent inquiries to Stemmet by using SMS but he experienced not replied by the point of publication.