“Pot” Stemmet faces fees about theft of Lottery-funded equipment
“Pot” Stemmet faces fees about theft of Lottery-funded equipment
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Richard “Pot” Stemmet, left, and an investigator appointed through the National Lotteries Fee to investigate the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Picture from an investigative report commissioned by the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is experiencing prosecution after gear paid for with resources within the Lottery was faraway from a Cape Town building he rented.
Stemmet is to seem in court in January.
In accordance with a prosecutor the prison prices could incorporate fraud, removing of equipment that were hooked up through the Sheriff and interfering using a Town of Cape Town electrical energy meter.
The fees stem from a grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, inside a civil courtroom make any difference, is trying to find to recover above R2.5-million in unpaid lease, fascination, legal charges and harm to a rented building in Crete Highway, in the industrial place of Wetton in Cape City.
The building was Formerly the headquarters on the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA) and it is exactly where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s hundreds of years-old minstrel society was supposedly operating.
Convicted felony Richard “Pot” Stemmet is experiencing prosecution for theft and fraud soon after equipment paid out for with Lottery resources was removed from a Cape Town creating.
Stemmet was arrested from the Specialised Commercial Criminal offense Device on 16 Oct 2024 and informed to appear in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court docket on 21 November.
GroundUp attended court docket within the working day but the make any difference was not placed on the court roll because the investigating officer did not deliver the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in courtroom in January.
The legal expenses stem from the complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that is looking for to recover over R2.five-million in unpaid hire, fascination, legal fees and harm to a rented setting up in Crete Highway, in the economic space of Wetton in Cape City.
The setting up was Beforehand the headquarters with the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s generations-old minstrel society was supposedly working.
The premises also housed a number of enterprises owned by Stemmet, whom police have referred to as a medicine higher flier. Between the companies Stemmet ran from your premises ended up a hat production enterprise and a nightclub. Stemmet has long been arrested several times for gun and drug-related offences and served time for armed theft during the eighties.
In line with an SMS sent to Meuwese from the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to look in court on thirty January 2025.
Despite the fact that Stemmet is however being presented using a demand sheet, feasible fees, include fraud, elimination of apparatus that were connected via the Sheriff, and interfering having a City of Cape Town electrical energy meter, In line with 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 more than R64-million in Lottery cash allocated into the CTMCA amongst 2003 and 2017, with the majority of the money - around R54.3-million - compensated inside the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 economical a long time, according to National Lotteries Commission (NLC) yearly experiences.
Stemmet was appointed a director from the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His wife Zainonesa and daughter Raziah continued หวย หุ้น ช่อง 9 as two of quite a few 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 among the directors. The corporation was deregistered by the businesses and Mental Property Commission (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in submitting once-a-year reports.
A brand new entity With all the very same title was subsequently registered as a private business, but with Stemmet no longer a director, according to CIPC documents. As a substitute, a loved one, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk had been appointed as administrators.
About the night of 12 April 2021 and into the subsequent morning, the Crete Street 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 within the Athlone industrial spot, which housed several of Stemmet’s organizations and also a new “minstrel museum”, In keeping with a leaked investigative report commissioned from the NLC. The investigator also photographed the gear at the new premises.
Nevertheless, the supposed new museum site, just like the aged a person in Wetton, was perfectly faraway from any of Cape Town’s vacationer routes and website visitors could not obtain it. There was no signage about the creating indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s businesses vacated the premises previously this year immediately after he fell ill.
The funding to ascertain a museum wasn't the only real lottery grant that the CTMCA acquired. In 2021, the Affiliation was allotted R100,000 and R1.5-million in Covid relief grants. The NLC originally refused to expose who experienced been given Covid funding but lastly relented beneath media and parliamentary force.
Other lottery grants allotted to non-gain entities associated with Stemmet and his family and his associates consist of R1.4-million with the Cape Cultural Carnival and Events Committee in 2019/twenty, and an additional R500,000 in 2021/22, In accordance with NLC annual experiences. Stemmet is usually 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 on the CTMCA’s previous Crete Road workplaces, was allotted R190,000 in 2019/twenty, and a further R635,000 in 2021/22 for just a “craft, woodwork and design and style programme”. Having said that, it appears that the 2021/22 payment was withheld after the NLC elevated questions about remarkable reports linked to previously funding acquired because of the CTMCA.
GroundUp has verified the SIU is investigating the lottery funding acquired with the CTMCA.
Also underneath investigation is often a R1-million payment because of 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 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 immediately after Letwaba Individually advised the grant be compensated to his spouse’s organization.
GroundUp sent issues to Stemmet via SMS but he had not replied by the time of publication.