Richard “Pot” Stemmet, still left, and an investigator appointed through the Nationwide Lotteries Fee to research the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Photo from an investigative report commissioned with the NLC
Richard “Pot” Stemmet is going through prosecution just after devices paid out for with resources through the Lottery was faraway from a Cape City constructing he rented.
Stemmet is to look in court docket in January.
In accordance with a prosecutor the prison costs could include things like fraud, removal of equipment that had been attached through the Sheriff and interfering having a City of Cape City electricity meter.
The fees stem from a criticism laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, in the civil courtroom issue, is seeking to Get well in excess of R2.five-million in unpaid rent, desire, authorized costs and harm to a rented creating in Crete Highway, in the industrial location of Wetton in Cape Town.
The making was Formerly the headquarters of your Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA) and it is wherever a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s centuries-old minstrel culture was supposedly functioning.
Convicted prison Richard “Pot” Stemmet is facing prosecution for theft and fraud following equipment compensated for with Lottery resources was faraway from a Cape Town creating.
Stemmet was arrested with the Specialised Business Crime Device on 16 Oct 2024 and explained to to seem while in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on 21 November.
GroundUp attended court docket to the working day even so the make a difference wasn't placed on the court roll since the investigating officer did not provide the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in courtroom in January.
The legal prices stem from the grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that's searching for to Recuperate in excess of R2.5-million in unpaid rent, desire, lawful prices and harm to a rented building in Crete Highway, in the economic space of Wetton in Cape Town.
The building was Beforehand the headquarters with the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is when a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s generations-previous minstrel society was supposedly working.
The premises also housed various firms owned by Stemmet, whom law enforcement have referred to as a medication substantial flier. Among the the companies Stemmet ran from the premises have been a hat producing company and also a nightclub. Stemmet continues to be arrested various situations for gun and drug-associated offences and served time for armed robbery inside the eighties.
In keeping with an SMS despatched to Meuwese via the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to look in courtroom on 30 January 2025.
Though Stemmet is however for being presented which has a cost sheet, doable fees, contain fraud, removing of apparatus that had been connected from the Sheriff, and interfering which has a City of Cape City electrical power meter, In accordance with an e mail despatched to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor managing the matter.
A grant of virtually R13-million to ascertain the minstrel museum was Element of a lot more than R64-million in Lottery cash allocated into the CTMCA between 2003 and 2017, with the bulk of The cash - around R54.three-million - compensated inside the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 fiscal decades, according to Countrywide Lotteries Fee (NLC) yearly stories.
Stemmet was appointed a director of your CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His spouse Zainonesa and daughter Raziah continued ตรวจ หวย ล่าสุด as two of a number of administrators of the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed to be a director in 2021.
In keeping with Meuwese, the making was leased to Stalph 164, an in depth corporation of which Stemmet was certainly one of the administrators. The corporate was deregistered by the Companies and Mental House Commission (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in publishing annual experiences.
A completely new entity While using the very same identify was subsequently registered as a private firm, but with Stemmet no longer a director, Based on CIPC data. Rather, a loved one, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk were appointed as directors.
Around the evening of 12 April 2021 and into the following early morning, the Crete Street premises were being cleared and also the equipment was removed, according to an affidavit by Meuwese. The equipment was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent during the Athlone industrial space, which housed various of Stemmet’s organizations as well as a new “minstrel museum”, Based on a leaked investigative report commissioned from the NLC. The investigator also photographed the gear at The brand new premises.
Having said that, the intended new museum web site, such as previous a person in Wetton, was effectively from any of Cape Town’s tourist routes and people couldn't obtain it. There was no signage within the constructing indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet’s corporations vacated the premises previously this yr soon after he fell ill.
The funding to determine a museum was not the only real lottery grant the CTMCA received. In 2021, the association was allocated R100,000 and R1.five-million in Covid reduction grants. The NLC in the beginning refused to reveal who had gained Covid funding but lastly relented beneath media and parliamentary tension.
Other lottery grants allotted to non-earnings entities connected to Stemmet and his family and his associates contain R1.4-million for your Cape Cultural Carnival and Activities Committee in 2019/20, and a further R500,000 in 2021/22, according to NLC once-a-year experiences. Stemmet is a former director of your committee and his spouse, Zainonesa, is now a director.
And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Affiliation, which can be registered on the CTMCA’s previous Crete Road places of work, was allocated R190,000 in 2019/twenty, and an additional R635,000 in 2021/22 for a “craft, woodwork and style and design programme”. Even so, it appears that the 2021/22 payment was withheld following the NLC lifted questions on exceptional experiences associated with earlier funding acquired because of the CTMCA.
GroundUp has verified which the SIU is investigating the lottery funding received from the CTMCA.
Also beneath investigation is often 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 to be a conduit for an additional R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, an organization by which the spouse of former NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, to the purchase of your mansion. Zibsimanzi acquired R4.eight-million to phase a rural soccer tournament in Limpopo just after Letwaba personally proposed that the grant be paid out to his spouse’s business.
GroundUp sent thoughts to Stemmet by way of SMS but he experienced not replied by the point of publication.