“Pot” Stemmet faces charges more than theft of Lottery-funded products
“Pot” Stemmet faces charges more than theft of Lottery-funded products
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Richard “Pot” Stemmet, still left, and an investigator appointed because of the National Lotteries Commission to investigate 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 cash through the Lottery was removed from a Cape City constructing he rented.
Stemmet is to seem in court in January.
According to a prosecutor the felony expenses could incorporate fraud, elimination of apparatus that had been attached because of the Sheriff and interfering with a Town of Cape Town electrical power meter.
The charges stem from the criticism laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, inside of a civil court make any difference, is seeking to Get well around R2.five-million in unpaid rent, interest, legal fees and harm to a rented developing in Crete Road, in the industrial location of Wetton in Cape Town.
The building was previously the headquarters of your Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA) and is particularly where by a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s hundreds of years-previous minstrel culture was supposedly functioning.
Convicted legal Richard “Pot” Stemmet is dealing with prosecution for theft and fraud after devices paid out for with Lottery funds was faraway from a Cape City making.
Stemmet was arrested from the Specialised Business Criminal offense Device on sixteen October 2024 and instructed to look inside the Wynberg Magistrate’s Courtroom on 21 November.
GroundUp attended court docket about the working day nevertheless the subject wasn't put on the court docket roll as the investigating officer didn't supply the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in court in January.
The prison charges stem from a criticism laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that is trying to find to Recuperate over R2.5-million in unpaid hire, fascination, legal prices and damage to a rented building in Crete Street, in the economic location of Wetton in Cape City.
The developing was Earlier the headquarters of the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA). This is when a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s generations-old minstrel culture was supposedly working.
The premises also housed various companies owned by Stemmet, whom police have described as a medicines significant flier. Amid the companies Stemmet ran in the premises ended up a hat producing company along with a nightclub. Stemmet continues to be arrested many instances for gun and drug-linked offences and served time for armed theft inside the 1980s.
As outlined by an SMS despatched to Meuwese because of the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to look in courtroom on thirty January 2025.
Though Stemmet is still being offered with a cost sheet, probable expenses, include fraud, removal of apparatus that had been connected because of the Sheriff, and interfering having a Town of Cape City electric power meter, Based on an e mail sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor dealing with the subject.
A grant of just about R13-million to determine the minstrel museum was part of a lot more than R64-million in Lottery cash allotted to the CTMCA among 2003 and 2017, with the bulk of the money - over R54.three-million - compensated in the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 financial a long time, In keeping with Nationwide Lotteries Commission (NLC) annual reports.
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 various directors of your organisation. Stemmet was reappointed like a director in 2021.
Based on Meuwese, the making was leased to Stalph 164, a close 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 yearly stories.
A completely new entity Using the exact same name was subsequently registered as a private company, but with Stemmet now not a director, In keeping with CIPC data. As a substitute, a member of the family, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk had been appointed as administrators.
About the evening of twelve April 2021 and into the following morning, the Crete Road premises have been cleared and also 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 region, which housed many of Stemmet’s businesses as well as a new “minstrel museum”, As outlined by 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 old a person in Wetton, was perfectly faraway from any of Cape Town’s tourist routes and readers could not obtain it. There was no signage over the making indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s organizations vacated the premises before this yr after he fell sick.
The funding to determine a museum was not the sole lottery grant the CTMCA received. In 2021, the association was allocated R100,000 and R1.5-million in Covid reduction grants. The NLC in the beginning refused to reveal who had obtained Covid funding but eventually relented under media and parliamentary stress.
Other lottery grants allocated to non-income entities connected to Stemmet and his relatives 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 reviews. Stemmet is really a previous director on the committee and his wife, Zainonesa, is currently a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Association, that is registered at the CTMCA’s previous Crete Highway workplaces, was allotted R190,000 in 2019/20, and an additional R635,000 in 2021/22 to get a “craft, woodwork and structure programme”. Even so, it seems that the 2021/22 payment was withheld once the NLC raised questions about remarkable reports linked to previously funding acquired because of the CTMCA.
GroundUp has verified the SIU is investigating the lottery funding acquired with the CTMCA.
Also beneath investigation can be a R1-million payment through the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which in turn compensated R500,000 of the to lawyers 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, an organization in which the spouse of previous NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, in direction of the acquisition in the mansion. Zibsimanzi been given R4.8-million to stage a rural soccer Event in Limpopo following Letwaba Individually recommended that the grant be paid out to his wife’s corporation.
GroundUp despatched concerns to Stemmet through SMS but he experienced not replied by the point of publication.