“Pot” Stemmet faces expenses in excess of theft of Lottery-funded gear
“Pot” Stemmet faces expenses in excess of theft of Lottery-funded gear
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Richard “Pot” Stemmet, still left, and an investigator appointed via the Nationwide Lotteries Fee to analyze the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Photo from an investigative report commissioned from the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is experiencing prosecution right after products paid out for with funds in the Lottery was faraway from a Cape Town creating he rented.
Stemmet is to look in courtroom in January.
In line with a prosecutor the criminal rates could include things like fraud, removal of kit that had been attached because of the Sheriff and interfering using a Metropolis of Cape City electrical power meter.
The fees stem from the complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, in the civil court docket matter, is in search of to Get well around R2.five-million in unpaid hire, desire, lawful costs and harm to a rented setting up in Crete Highway, in the commercial spot of Wetton in Cape Town.
The developing was previously the headquarters of your Cape City Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA) and is particularly where by a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the town’s centuries-outdated minstrel tradition was supposedly functioning.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 informed to seem from the Wynberg Justice of the peace’s Court docket on 21 November.
GroundUp attended court docket over the working day but the make a difference was not put on the courtroom roll since the investigating officer did not deliver the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to look in courtroom in January.
The legal costs stem from the grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who's looking for to Get better in excess of R2.5-million in unpaid hire, curiosity, lawful charges and harm to a rented constructing in Crete Road, in the commercial area of Wetton in Cape Town.
The setting up was Formerly the headquarters with the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the town’s generations-old minstrel culture was supposedly working.
The premises also housed many enterprises owned by Stemmet, whom law enforcement have described as a medication large flier. Amid the businesses Stemmet ran from your premises had been a hat manufacturing business as well as a nightclub. Stemmet is arrested a number of times for gun and drug-similar offences and served time for armed robbery within the nineteen eighties.
In line with an SMS despatched to Meuwese with the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to look in court on thirty January 2025.
Even though Stemmet is still to become offered which has a charge sheet, achievable prices, include fraud, removal of equipment that had been attached through the Sheriff, and interfering that has a Metropolis of Cape Town electrical power meter, As outlined by an electronic mail sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor handling the make a difference.
A grant of almost R13-million to determine the minstrel museum was Component of a lot more than R64-million in Lottery money allotted on the CTMCA amongst 2003 and 2017, with the bulk of the money - over R54.3-million - compensated while in the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 monetary yrs, In accordance with Nationwide Lotteries Fee (NLC) annual studies.
Stemmet was appointed a director of your CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His wife Zainonesa and daughter Raziah continued หวย หุ้น ช่อง 9 as two of various directors of your organisation. Stemmet was reappointed being a director in 2021.
According to Meuwese, the making was leased to Stalph 164, a detailed corporation of which Stemmet was considered one of the administrators. The organization was deregistered by the Companies and Intellectual House Fee (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in publishing once-a-year experiences.
A brand new entity With all the very same title was subsequently registered as A non-public organization, but with Stemmet not a director, In accordance with CIPC records. Rather, a family member, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk were being appointed as directors.
Around the night of 12 April 2021 and into the subsequent morning, the Crete Street premises had been 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 from the Athlone industrial region, which housed many of Stemmet’s businesses as well as 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 web site, much like the previous a single in Wetton, was effectively far from any of Cape City’s tourist routes and site visitors couldn't entry it. There was no signage within the developing indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s businesses vacated the premises before this year just after he fell sick.
The funding to determine a museum was not the sole lottery grant which the CTMCA obtained. In 2021, the association was allotted R100,000 and R1.five-million in Covid relief grants. The NLC originally refused to expose who experienced been given Covid funding but ultimately relented beneath media and parliamentary tension.
Other lottery grants allotted to non-gain entities linked to Stemmet and his family members and his associates contain R1.4-million for your Cape Cultural Carnival and Activities Committee in 2019/20, and an extra R500,000 in 2021/22, In keeping with NLC once-a-year studies. Stemmet can be a former director with the committee and his wife, Zainonesa, is currently a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Affiliation, that is registered within the CTMCA’s former Crete Highway offices, was allocated R190,000 in 2019/twenty, and a further R635,000 in 2021/22 for your “craft, woodwork and style programme”. Having said that, it appears that the 2021/22 payment was withheld after the NLC elevated questions on superb reports connected with before funding been given by the CTMCA.
GroundUp has verified which the SIU is investigating the lottery funding been given by the CTMCA.
Also under investigation is a R1-million payment by the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which subsequently paid out R500,000 of this to legal professionals performing in the purchase of the R27-million mansion for former NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted as a conduit for an extra R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, a business by which the spouse of former NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, toward the purchase with the mansion. Zibsimanzi obtained R4.eight-million to phase a rural soccer tournament in Limpopo immediately after Letwaba personally advisable which the grant be compensated to his wife’s firm.
GroundUp despatched questions to Stemmet by way of SMS but he had not replied by the time of publication.