“Pot” Stemmet faces costs above theft of Lottery-funded machines
“Pot” Stemmet faces costs above theft of Lottery-funded machines
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Richard “Pot” Stemmet, still left, and an investigator appointed through the Countrywide Lotteries Commission to investigate the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Image from an investigative report commissioned with the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is facing prosecution immediately after machines compensated for with resources from the Lottery was faraway from a Cape City creating he rented.
Stemmet is to look in court docket in January.
According to a prosecutor the felony expenses could contain fraud, removal of apparatus that were attached from the Sheriff and interfering by using a City of Cape Town energy meter.
The costs stem from a criticism laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, inside of a civil court issue, is in search of to recover over R2.five-million in unpaid hire, interest, lawful prices and damage to a rented making in Crete Highway, in the economic place of Wetton in Cape Town.
The constructing was Beforehand the headquarters in the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA) and it is wherever a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s generations-outdated minstrel society was supposedly running.
Convicted prison Richard “Pot” Stemmet is facing prosecution for theft and fraud right after gear compensated for with Lottery money was faraway from a Cape Town constructing.
Stemmet was arrested because of the Specialised Business Criminal offense Unit on sixteen October 2024 and explained to to appear during the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on 21 November.
GroundUp attended courtroom over the day however the matter was not put on the court roll because the investigating officer did not produce the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in courtroom in January.
The felony expenses stem from the grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that's trying to get to Recuperate around R2.five-million in unpaid hire, desire, lawful costs and harm to a rented developing in Crete Road, in the industrial region of Wetton in Cape Town.
The building was Beforehand the headquarters with the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s hundreds of years-previous minstrel society was supposedly running.
The premises also housed numerous companies owned by Stemmet, whom police have referred to as a medicines high flier. Among the the businesses Stemmet ran in the premises were a hat production enterprise plus a nightclub. Stemmet continues to be arrested numerous instances for gun and drug-associated offences and served time for armed robbery during the eighties.
In line with an SMS sent to Meuwese via the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in court on thirty January 2025.
Even though Stemmet is yet being presented that has a demand sheet, attainable charges, include things like fraud, elimination of apparatus that were hooked up because of the Sheriff, and interfering having a Metropolis of Cape Town electric power meter, according to an e-mail sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor handling the matter.
A grant of just about R13-million to determine the minstrel museum was part of greater than R64-million in Lottery funds allocated for the CTMCA involving 2003 and 2017, with the majority of the money - around R54.3-million - paid within the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 financial yrs, In line with National Lotteries Commission (NLC) once-a-year reviews.
Stemmet was appointed a director with the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His wife Zainonesa and daughter Raziah continued ตรวจ รางวัล as two of numerous directors on the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed like a director in 2021.
According to Meuwese, the making was leased to Stalph 164, a close corporation of which Stemmet was one among the administrators. The business was deregistered by the Companies and Mental Residence Fee (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in publishing once-a-year reports.
A brand new entity Together with the similar identify was subsequently registered as A non-public corporation, but with Stemmet no more a director, As outlined by CIPC data. Alternatively, a loved one, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk have been appointed as directors.
Over the evening of twelve April 2021 and into the next early morning, the Crete Street premises were cleared and the machinery was removed, As outlined by an affidavit by Meuwese. The tools was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent during the Athlone industrial region, which housed quite a few 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 products at the new premises.
Even so, the intended new museum web-site, similar to the outdated one particular in Wetton, was very well from any of Cape Town’s vacationer routes and people could not accessibility it. There was no signage on the setting up indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s corporations vacated the premises earlier this calendar year right after he fell unwell.
The funding to ascertain a museum wasn't the only lottery grant the CTMCA been given. In 2021, the association was allocated R100,000 and R1.5-million in Covid reduction grants. The NLC initially refused to reveal who had obtained Covid funding but eventually relented under media and parliamentary stress.
Other lottery grants allocated to non-earnings entities connected to Stemmet and his household and his associates include things like R1.four-million for that Cape Cultural Carnival and Gatherings Committee in 2019/twenty, and an additional R500,000 in 2021/22, In accordance 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, which happens to be registered with the CTMCA’s previous Crete Road places of work, was allotted R190,000 in 2019/20, and an additional R635,000 in 2021/22 for a “craft, woodwork and style and design programme”. Nevertheless, it appears that the 2021/22 payment was withheld once the NLC lifted questions about fantastic experiences associated with earlier funding acquired with the CTMCA.
GroundUp has verified the SIU is investigating the lottery funding gained via the CTMCA.
Also less than investigation is a R1-million payment by the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which in turn compensated R500,000 of this to lawyers performing in the purchase of the R27-million mansion for previous NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted like a conduit for a further R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, a corporation where the wife of previous NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, in the direction of the acquisition on the mansion. Zibsimanzi acquired R4.eight-million to stage a rural soccer Match in Limpopo after Letwaba personally proposed the grant be compensated to his spouse’s firm.
GroundUp despatched queries to Stemmet by using SMS but he had not replied by the time of publication.