“Pot” Stemmet faces expenses around theft of Lottery-funded tools
“Pot” Stemmet faces expenses around theft of Lottery-funded tools
Blog Article
Richard “Pot” Stemmet, remaining, and an investigator appointed through the Nationwide Lotteries Commission to analyze the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Picture from an investigative report commissioned from the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is going through prosecution soon after equipment paid for with money within the Lottery was removed from a Cape City creating he rented.
Stemmet is to look in court docket in January.
In line with a prosecutor the felony costs could include things like fraud, elimination of equipment that were connected through the Sheriff and interfering that has a Metropolis of Cape Town energy meter.
The costs stem from the grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, within a civil courtroom make a difference, is in search of to recover about R2.five-million in unpaid hire, interest, authorized expenses and harm to a rented making in Crete Road, in the economic space of Wetton in Cape City.
The creating was Beforehand the headquarters on the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA) and is also wherever a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s centuries-aged minstrel society was supposedly functioning.
Convicted criminal Richard “Pot” Stemmet is going through prosecution for theft and fraud immediately after machines paid out for with Lottery cash was faraway from a Cape City setting up.
Stemmet was arrested with the Specialised Business Criminal offense Unit on sixteen October 2024 and instructed to seem within the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court docket on 21 November.
GroundUp attended courtroom within the working day but the matter was not placed on the court roll as the investigating officer did not supply the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in courtroom in January.
The prison fees stem from the criticism laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who is looking for to Get well more than R2.5-million in unpaid rent, interest, lawful expenses and harm to a rented creating in Crete Street, in the economic space of Wetton in Cape City.
The building was previously the headquarters on the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s generations-outdated minstrel lifestyle was supposedly working.
The premises also housed numerous organizations owned by Stemmet, whom law enforcement have described as a drugs significant flier. Amid the businesses Stemmet ran from the premises have been a hat manufacturing enterprise and also a nightclub. Stemmet has actually been arrested numerous periods for gun and drug-relevant offences and served time for armed theft in the nineteen eighties.
According to an SMS sent to Meuwese from the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in court on 30 January 2025.
Whilst Stemmet is yet to become presented with a demand sheet, doable expenses, consist of fraud, removal of apparatus that were attached because of the Sheriff, and interfering which has a Town of Cape Town energy meter, In keeping with an e mail despatched to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor handling the issue.
A grant of just about R13-million to determine the minstrel museum was Portion of in excess of R64-million in Lottery cash allotted to the CTMCA among 2003 and 2017, with the bulk of the money - above R54.3-million - paid inside the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 economic a long time, In accordance with Countrywide Lotteries Commission (NLC) once-a-year studies.
Stemmet was appointed a director of the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His wife Zainonesa and daughter Raziah ongoing เช ค หวย as two of many directors of the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed as a director in 2021.
In keeping with Meuwese, the creating was leased to Stalph 164, a close corporation of which Stemmet was certainly one of the administrators. The business was deregistered by the businesses and Intellectual House Fee (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in submitting once-a-year reviews.
A new entity Together with the exact name was subsequently registered as a private business, but with Stemmet not a director, As outlined by CIPC records. Alternatively, a family member, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk had been appointed as directors.
Over the night of 12 April 2021 and into the following early morning, the Crete Street premises ended up cleared and the equipment was taken out, In line with an affidavit by Meuwese. The products was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent within the Athlone industrial space, which housed many of Stemmet’s firms and a new “minstrel museum”, In line with a leaked investigative report commissioned from the NLC. The investigator also photographed the devices at The brand new premises.
However, the intended new museum web-site, such as aged one in Wetton, was nicely away from any of Cape City’s vacationer routes and website visitors couldn't obtain it. There was no signage to the making indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s enterprises vacated the premises previously this yr soon after he fell ill.
The funding to determine a museum was not the one lottery grant which the CTMCA acquired. In 2021, the association was allocated R100,000 and R1.five-million in Covid aid grants. The NLC originally refused to expose who experienced obtained Covid funding but finally relented underneath media and parliamentary tension.
Other lottery grants allocated to non-financial gain entities linked to Stemmet and his relatives and his associates consist of R1.4-million for that Cape Cultural Carnival and Events Committee in 2019/20, and an extra R500,000 in 2021/22, Based on NLC annual reports. Stemmet is really a former director of the committee and his spouse, Zainonesa, is now a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Affiliation, that's registered with the CTMCA’s former Crete Street offices, was allotted R190,000 in 2019/20, and an extra R635,000 in 2021/22 for any “craft, woodwork and style programme”. On the other hand, it appears that the 2021/22 payment was withheld once the NLC raised questions about excellent stories associated with previously funding gained from the CTMCA.
GroundUp has confirmed the SIU is investigating the lottery funding gained by the CTMCA.
Also below investigation is often a R1-million payment via the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which subsequently paid out R500,000 of this to lawyers performing in the acquisition of a 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 corporation wherein the spouse of former NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, in direction of the purchase of your mansion. Zibsimanzi acquired R4.eight-million to stage a rural soccer Event in Limpopo soon after Letwaba Individually advisable which the grant be paid to his wife’s enterprise.
GroundUp sent issues to Stemmet by way of SMS but he had not replied by the point of publication.