Richard “Pot” Stemmet, left, and an investigator appointed by the Countrywide Lotteries Commission to research the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Picture from an investigative report commissioned through the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is facing prosecution after products paid out for with money within the Lottery was removed from a Cape City constructing he rented.
Stemmet is to seem in court docket in January.
In line with a prosecutor the legal costs could contain fraud, removing of apparatus that had been hooked up with the Sheriff and interfering using a Town of Cape Town energy meter.
The charges stem from a complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, in the civil court docket matter, is in search of to Get better more than R2.5-million in unpaid rent, interest, legal expenses and damage to a rented building in Crete Highway, in the economic space of Wetton in Cape City.
The building was previously the headquarters from the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA) and is also the place a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s centuries-old minstrel tradition was supposedly operating.
Convicted legal Richard “Pot” Stemmet is experiencing prosecution for theft and fraud just after machines paid for with Lottery resources was removed from a Cape Town building.
Stemmet was arrested because of the Specialised Commercial Criminal offense Device on 16 Oct 2024 and told to seem in the Wynberg Justice of the peace’s Court docket on 21 November.
GroundUp attended court docket about the working day but the issue was not placed on the court roll as the investigating officer didn't provide the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in courtroom in January.
The legal prices stem from the complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who is searching for to Get better over R2.5-million in unpaid rent, interest, lawful costs and harm to a rented constructing in Crete Road, in the economic space of Wetton in Cape Town.
The setting up was Formerly the headquarters of your Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA). This is when a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the town’s generations-aged minstrel culture was supposedly working.
The premises also housed many enterprises owned by Stemmet, whom police have described as a medications higher flier. Among the the companies Stemmet ran in the premises have been a hat production corporation along with a nightclub. Stemmet is arrested numerous moments for gun and drug-connected offences and served time for armed robbery during the nineteen eighties.
In keeping with an SMS sent to Meuwese via the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in court docket on 30 January 2025.
While Stemmet is but to be presented which has a charge sheet, probable costs, involve fraud, removing of kit that were attached from the Sheriff, and interfering using a Metropolis of Cape City energy meter, Based on an email despatched 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 funds allotted to your CTMCA among 2003 and 2017, with the bulk of The cash - in excess of R54.3-million - paid within the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 financial years, Based on Countrywide Lotteries Commission (NLC) annual experiences.
Stemmet was appointed a director on the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His spouse Zainonesa and daughter Raziah ongoing หวย วัน นี้ as two of numerous administrators of your organisation. Stemmet was reappointed for a director in 2021.
In line with Meuwese, the developing was leased to Stalph 164, a detailed corporation of which Stemmet was considered one of the directors. The corporate was deregistered by the Companies and Intellectual Residence Fee (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in distributing once-a-year studies.
A fresh entity While using the exact same name was subsequently registered as a private organization, but with Stemmet no more a director, As outlined by CIPC information. As an alternative, a member of the family, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk had been appointed as directors.
Over the evening of twelve April 2021 and into the subsequent morning, the Crete Highway premises have been cleared along with the machinery was eradicated, As outlined by an affidavit by Meuwese. The products was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent within the Athlone industrial space, which housed many of Stemmet’s companies and also a new “minstrel museum”, In accordance with a leaked investigative report commissioned via the NLC. The investigator also photographed the equipment at the new premises.
Nonetheless, the intended new museum web-site, just like the old 1 in Wetton, was effectively far from any of Cape Town’s vacationer routes and website visitors couldn't accessibility it. There was no signage around the building indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s businesses vacated the premises previously this year after he fell unwell.
The funding to establish a museum wasn't the only lottery grant the CTMCA obtained. In 2021, the Affiliation was allotted R100,000 and R1.five-million in Covid relief grants. The NLC to begin with refused to expose who had acquired Covid funding but at last relented below media and parliamentary strain.
Other lottery grants allocated to non-financial gain entities associated with Stemmet and his family members and his associates incorporate R1.4-million for that Cape Cultural Carnival and Activities Committee in 2019/20, and a further R500,000 in 2021/22, In line with NLC yearly stories. Stemmet is actually a former director on the committee and his wife, Zainonesa, is at present a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Association, that is registered in the CTMCA’s previous Crete Street places of work, was allocated R190,000 in 2019/twenty, and an additional R635,000 in 2021/22 for a “craft, woodwork and structure programme”. Even so, it appears that the 2021/22 payment was withheld following the NLC lifted questions about superb reviews connected to earlier funding obtained because of the CTMCA.
GroundUp has verified that the SIU is investigating the lottery funding obtained with the CTMCA.
Also underneath investigation is often a R1-million payment by the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which in turn compensated R500,000 of the to attorneys acting in the purchase of a R27-million mansion for previous NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted as a conduit for an extra R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, a company by which the spouse of former NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, in direction of the purchase of the mansion. Zibsimanzi been given R4.8-million to phase a rural soccer tournament in Limpopo following Letwaba Individually advised that the grant be paid out to his spouse’s firm.
GroundUp despatched concerns to Stemmet by using SMS but he experienced not replied by the point of publication.