Richard “Pot” Stemmet, still left, and an investigator appointed through the Countrywide Lotteries Commission to research the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Photograph from an investigative report commissioned via the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is dealing with prosecution after tools paid out for with cash in the Lottery was removed from a Cape City building he rented.
Stemmet is to look in courtroom in January.
In keeping with a prosecutor the prison prices could incorporate fraud, removal of apparatus that were connected through the Sheriff and interfering with a Metropolis of Cape City energy meter.
The costs stem from the complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, inside of a civil court issue, is looking for to Get well around R2.5-million in unpaid rent, fascination, authorized expenditures and damage to a rented developing in Crete Road, in the industrial area of Wetton in Cape City.
The constructing was Formerly the headquarters from the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA) and it is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s hundreds of years-old minstrel lifestyle was supposedly working.
Convicted criminal Richard “Pot” Stemmet is struggling with prosecution for theft and fraud soon after tools paid for with Lottery money was faraway from a Cape Town setting up.
Stemmet was arrested through the Specialised Professional Criminal offense Unit on 16 Oct 2024 and informed to seem in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Courtroom on 21 November.
GroundUp attended courtroom over the working day nevertheless the subject wasn't put on the court roll because the investigating officer didn't supply the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in courtroom in January.
The criminal costs stem from a complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that is searching for to Get better above R2.5-million in unpaid hire, desire, authorized fees and harm to a rented setting up in Crete Highway, in the commercial area of Wetton in Cape City.
The building was Earlier the headquarters from the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is when a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s generations-old minstrel culture was supposedly working.
The premises also housed quite a few organizations owned by Stemmet, whom police have referred to as a drugs large flier. Between the companies Stemmet ran from the premises had been a hat production firm in addition to a nightclub. Stemmet has actually been arrested quite a few situations for gun and drug-linked offences and served time for armed robbery in the nineteen eighties.
Based on an SMS despatched to Meuwese with the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in court on 30 January 2025.
Although Stemmet is still for being presented by using a demand sheet, achievable rates, include things like fraud, removal of kit that were attached with the Sheriff, and interfering which has a Town of Cape City electrical energy meter, As outlined by an electronic mail sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor managing the matter.
A grant of just about R13-million to determine the minstrel museum was Component of in excess of R64-million in Lottery cash allocated for the CTMCA among 2003 and 2017, with the bulk of The cash - above R54.three-million - paid out in the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 financial decades, As outlined by 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 spouse Zainonesa and daughter Raziah continued หวย ลาว ล่าสุด as two of a number of administrators on the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed as being a director in 2021.
According to Meuwese, the making was leased to Stalph 164, a close corporation of which Stemmet was one of the directors. The corporate was deregistered by the Companies and Intellectual Assets Fee (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in submitting once-a-year reviews.
A whole new entity While using the exact same name was subsequently registered as a private business, but with Stemmet no longer a director, In accordance with CIPC information. Alternatively, a member of the family, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk had been appointed as administrators.
To the evening of twelve April 2021 and into the following early morning, the Crete Street premises had been cleared and the equipment was removed, As outlined by an affidavit by Meuwese. The gear was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent from the Athlone industrial area, which housed many of Stemmet’s enterprises along with a new “minstrel museum”, In line with a leaked investigative report commissioned via the NLC. The investigator also photographed the equipment at The brand new premises.
However, the meant new museum web page, like the aged a person in Wetton, was very well faraway from any of Cape Town’s vacationer routes and readers could not access it. There was no signage on the setting up 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 one lottery grant that the CTMCA acquired. In 2021, the Affiliation was allocated R100,000 and R1.5-million in Covid reduction grants. The NLC to begin with refused to expose who experienced received Covid funding but last but not least relented less than media and parliamentary pressure.
Other lottery grants allotted to non-earnings entities connected to Stemmet and his relatives and his associates involve R1.four-million with the Cape Cultural Carnival and Occasions Committee in 2019/20, and an extra R500,000 in 2021/22, according to NLC once-a-year studies. Stemmet can be a former director of your committee and his wife, Zainonesa, is presently a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Affiliation, that's registered on the CTMCA’s previous Crete Road workplaces, was allotted R190,000 in 2019/20, and an extra R635,000 in 2021/22 to get a “craft, woodwork and style and design programme”. Nonetheless, it seems that the 2021/22 payment was withheld after the NLC elevated questions about superb reviews connected to earlier funding obtained with the CTMCA.
GroundUp has verified the SIU is investigating the lottery funding gained by the CTMCA.
Also below investigation is actually a R1-million payment because of the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which consequently paid R500,000 of the to attorneys acting in the acquisition of a R27-million mansion for former NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted for a conduit for an additional R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, an organization in 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 just after Letwaba personally encouraged which the grant be paid to his wife’s company.
GroundUp sent inquiries to Stemmet by way of SMS but he had not replied by the time of publication.