“Pot” Stemmet faces expenses around theft of Lottery-funded tools
“Pot” Stemmet faces expenses around theft of Lottery-funded tools
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Richard “Pot” Stemmet, still left, and an investigator appointed with the National Lotteries Fee to investigate the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Photograph from an investigative report commissioned because of the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is facing prosecution immediately after equipment compensated for with resources from the Lottery was faraway from a Cape City setting up he rented.
Stemmet is to look in courtroom in January.
As outlined by a prosecutor the legal expenses could contain fraud, removal of apparatus that were attached because of the Sheriff and interfering using a Metropolis of Cape City electrical energy meter.
The costs stem from the criticism laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, inside a civil court subject, is seeking to recover above R2.5-million in unpaid rent, curiosity, legal expenses and damage to a rented developing in Crete Road, in the economic space of Wetton in Cape City.
The constructing was Formerly the headquarters from the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA) and it is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s centuries-aged minstrel tradition was supposedly functioning.
Convicted legal Richard “Pot” Stemmet is facing prosecution for theft and fraud immediately after gear paid out for with Lottery resources was removed from a Cape Town making.
Stemmet was arrested from the Specialised Business Criminal offense Device on sixteen Oct 2024 and told to appear inside the Wynberg Justice of the peace’s Courtroom on 21 November.
GroundUp attended courtroom to the working day although the make any difference wasn't placed on the court roll because the investigating officer didn't supply the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in court in January.
The prison prices stem from a criticism laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that is searching for to recover around R2.5-million in unpaid hire, curiosity, lawful charges and harm to a rented constructing in Crete Highway, in the commercial space of Wetton in Cape Town.
The making was previously the headquarters on the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s hundreds of years-outdated minstrel society was supposedly operating.
The premises also housed a number of firms owned by Stemmet, whom law enforcement have referred to as a medicine superior flier. Among the companies Stemmet ran within the premises were being a hat producing corporation and also a nightclub. Stemmet has actually been arrested many instances 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 seem in court docket on 30 January 2025.
While Stemmet is however being presented using a cost sheet, possible expenses, include things like fraud, removing of kit that were hooked up by the Sheriff, and interfering using a Metropolis of Cape Town electrical energy meter, In accordance with an e-mail sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor managing the issue.
A grant of just about R13-million to determine the minstrel museum was A part of over R64-million in Lottery funds allocated to your CTMCA concerning 2003 and 2017, with the majority of the money - more than R54.three-million - paid out inside the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 economic many years, Based on Countrywide Lotteries Commission (NLC) yearly reports.
Stemmet was appointed a director with the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His wife Zainonesa and daughter Raziah ongoing lottovip as two of many directors with the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed like a director in 2021.
Based on Meuwese, the making was leased to Stalph 164, a close corporation of which Stemmet was certainly one of the administrators. The organization was deregistered by the businesses and Mental Assets Fee (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in submitting annual studies.
A completely new entity With all the very same title was subsequently registered as a private firm, but with Stemmet not a director, In accordance with CIPC information. Rather, a family member, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk were being appointed as directors.
Around the night of twelve April 2021 and into the following early morning, the Crete Street premises were cleared and the machinery was eradicated, In line with an affidavit by Meuwese. The equipment was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent while in the Athlone industrial area, which housed many of Stemmet’s companies plus a new “minstrel museum”, In keeping with a leaked investigative report commissioned from the NLC. The investigator also photographed the tools at the new premises.
Nonetheless, the intended new museum site, similar to the aged a person in Wetton, was perfectly clear of any of Cape City’s vacationer routes and visitors couldn't entry it. There was no signage on the building indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s businesses vacated the premises before this yr right after he fell ill.
The funding to ascertain a museum was not the one lottery grant which the CTMCA gained. In 2021, the Affiliation was allocated R100,000 and R1.5-million in Covid aid grants. The NLC at first refused to expose who experienced obtained Covid funding but at last relented beneath media and parliamentary force.
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 Occasions Committee in 2019/twenty, and an extra R500,000 in 2021/22, according to NLC annual reports. Stemmet is really a previous director with the committee and his spouse, Zainonesa, is currently a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Affiliation, that's registered in the CTMCA’s previous Crete Road 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”. Having said that, it appears that the 2021/22 payment was withheld following the NLC elevated questions on excellent studies connected to before funding received through the CTMCA.
GroundUp has confirmed the SIU is investigating the lottery funding gained via the CTMCA.
Also under investigation is really a R1-million payment from the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which in turn paid R500,000 of the to attorneys acting in the purchase of the R27-million mansion for former NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted as being a conduit for an extra R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, a corporation where the wife of previous NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, in direction of the acquisition on the mansion. Zibsimanzi acquired R4.8-million to phase a rural soccer tournament in Limpopo just after Letwaba personally proposed that the grant be paid out to his spouse’s organization.
GroundUp despatched thoughts to Stemmet by way of SMS but he had not replied by the point of publication.