Richard “Pot” Stemmet, still left, and an investigator appointed via the Nationwide Lotteries Commission to research the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Photograph from an investigative report commissioned through the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is experiencing prosecution after equipment compensated for with money from your Lottery was faraway from a Cape Town building he rented.
Stemmet is to look in courtroom in January.
As outlined by a prosecutor the legal charges could include things like fraud, removal of apparatus that were hooked up through the Sheriff and interfering which has a City of Cape Town electrical power meter.
The fees stem from the criticism laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, in a civil court make a difference, is trying to find to Get well about R2.five-million in unpaid lease, curiosity, legal costs and harm to a rented making in Crete Street, in the commercial region of Wetton in Cape City.
The making was Formerly the headquarters from the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA) and is particularly wherever a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s generations-old minstrel lifestyle was supposedly operating.
Convicted felony Richard “Pot” Stemmet is facing prosecution for theft and fraud immediately after gear paid out for with Lottery cash was faraway from a Cape City developing.
Stemmet was arrested with the Specialised Professional Criminal offense Device on sixteen Oct 2024 and explained to to look within the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on 21 November.
GroundUp attended court docket over the working day though the make any difference wasn't placed on the court roll as the investigating officer did not deliver the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to look in courtroom in January.
The criminal rates stem from the complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that is in search of to recover about R2.5-million in unpaid lease, interest, authorized costs and damage to a rented setting up in Crete Road, in the commercial area of Wetton in Cape Town.
The making was previously the headquarters in the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is when a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s generations-old minstrel culture was supposedly working.
The premises also housed numerous corporations owned by Stemmet, whom law enforcement have referred to as a medications significant flier. Between the companies Stemmet ran through the premises have been a hat production business along with a nightclub. Stemmet continues to be arrested quite a few periods for gun and drug-similar offences and served time for armed theft within the nineteen eighties.
As outlined by an SMS sent to Meuwese via the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in courtroom on thirty January 2025.
Despite the fact that Stemmet is yet being introduced using a charge sheet, doable prices, incorporate fraud, removal of equipment that were connected because of the Sheriff, and interfering having a Town of Cape City electrical power meter, In keeping with an e mail sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor handling the issue.
A grant of virtually R13-million to ascertain the minstrel museum was Section of in excess of R64-million in Lottery cash allocated into the CTMCA involving 2003 and 2017, with the majority of The cash - more than R54.three-million - paid out inside the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 monetary a long time, Based on Countrywide Lotteries Commission (NLC) once-a-year studies.
Stemmet was appointed a director in the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His spouse Zainonesa and daughter Raziah continued ผล หวย ลาว วัน นี้ as two of quite a few administrators from the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed to be a director in 2021.
According to Meuwese, the setting up was leased to Stalph 164, an in depth Company of which Stemmet was one among the administrators. The business was deregistered by the Companies and Mental House Fee (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in publishing once-a-year reviews.
A new entity Together with the exact identify was subsequently registered as A personal business, but with Stemmet not a director, As outlined by CIPC data. In its place, a relative, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk were being appointed as administrators.
To the night of 12 April 2021 and into the subsequent morning, the Crete Road premises were cleared and the equipment was eliminated, In keeping with an affidavit by Meuwese. The devices was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent within the Athlone industrial place, which housed a number of of Stemmet’s enterprises and a new “minstrel museum”, In accordance with a leaked investigative report commissioned by the NLC. The investigator also photographed the gear at the new premises.
Nonetheless, the intended new museum internet site, similar to the outdated one particular in Wetton, was properly from any of Cape Town’s vacationer routes and website visitors could not obtain it. There was no signage over the making indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s corporations vacated the premises earlier this 12 months right after he fell unwell.
The funding to establish a museum was not the only real lottery grant that the CTMCA gained. In 2021, the Affiliation was allocated R100,000 and R1.5-million in Covid reduction grants. The NLC in the beginning refused to reveal who had acquired Covid funding but at last relented under media and parliamentary stress.
Other lottery grants allocated to non-income entities connected to Stemmet and his spouse and children and his associates include R1.four-million with the Cape Cultural Carnival and Situations Committee in 2019/twenty, and an additional R500,000 in 2021/22, In line with NLC yearly reports. Stemmet is a previous director in the committee and his spouse, Zainonesa, is at this time a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Association, which is registered for the CTMCA’s former Crete Street places of work, was allocated R190,000 in 2019/20, and an extra R635,000 in 2021/22 for any “craft, woodwork and structure programme”. Even so, it seems that the 2021/22 payment was withheld once the NLC raised questions about exceptional stories related to earlier funding obtained with the CTMCA.
GroundUp has confirmed the SIU is investigating the lottery funding acquired through the CTMCA.
Also beneath investigation can be a R1-million payment with the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which consequently paid R500,000 of the to lawyers performing in the acquisition of a 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 through which the wife of former NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, towards the acquisition of the mansion. Zibsimanzi gained R4.eight-million to stage a rural soccer Match in Limpopo following Letwaba Individually recommended that the grant be paid out to his spouse’s company.
GroundUp sent inquiries to Stemmet by using SMS but he had not replied by the time of publication.