“Pot” Stemmet faces costs in excess of theft of Lottery-funded equipment

“Pot” Stemmet faces costs in excess of theft of Lottery-funded equipment

Blog Article

Richard “Pot” Stemmet, still left, and an investigator appointed with the National Lotteries Commission to analyze the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Photo from an investigative report commissioned via the NLC

Richard “Pot” Stemmet is experiencing prosecution soon after equipment compensated for with funds with the Lottery was removed from a Cape City making he rented.
Stemmet is to seem in court in January.
According to a prosecutor the criminal fees could involve fraud, removing of kit that were connected by the Sheriff and interfering using a Metropolis of Cape City electricity meter.
The fees stem from a grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, inside of a civil court matter, is trying to find to recover in excess of R2.5-million in unpaid rent, curiosity, authorized prices and damage to a rented constructing in Crete Highway, in the industrial place of Wetton in Cape Town.
The building was Formerly the headquarters in the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA) which is wherever a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the town’s hundreds of years-outdated minstrel tradition was supposedly working.
Convicted legal Richard “Pot” Stemmet is experiencing prosecution for theft and fraud just after gear compensated for with Lottery cash was removed from a Cape City constructing.

Stemmet was arrested via the Specialised Commercial Criminal offense Unit on sixteen October 2024 and told to seem inside the Wynberg Justice of the peace’s Court docket on 21 November.

GroundUp attended court on the working day though the make any difference was not put on the courtroom roll since the investigating officer didn't supply the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in court docket in January.

The felony costs stem from a complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that is trying to find to recover around R2.five-million in unpaid rent, fascination, lawful prices and harm to a rented building in Crete Highway, in the industrial space of Wetton in Cape City.

The making was Formerly the headquarters in the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the town’s hundreds of years-previous minstrel tradition was supposedly functioning.

The premises also housed various firms owned by Stemmet, whom police have called a drugs significant flier. Among the businesses Stemmet ran from your premises ended up a hat manufacturing corporation and a nightclub. Stemmet has become arrested various situations for gun and drug-associated offences and served time for armed theft inside the nineteen eighties.

In line with an SMS despatched to Meuwese by the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in court on thirty January 2025.

Despite the fact that Stemmet is still being presented having a demand sheet, doable expenses, involve fraud, elimination of apparatus that were attached because of the Sheriff, and interfering having a City of Cape Town electrical power meter, Based on an email sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor handling the issue.

A grant of virtually R13-million to ascertain the minstrel museum was Section of much more than R64-million in Lottery resources allotted on the CTMCA amongst 2003 and 2017, with the bulk of The cash - about R54.3-million - compensated during the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 economical yrs, In line with National Lotteries Fee (NLC) yearly reports.

Stemmet was appointed a director of your CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His wife Zainonesa and daughter Raziah ongoing ผล หวย as two of quite a few directors from the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed to be a director in 2021.

According to Meuwese, the setting up was leased to Stalph 164, a close corporation of which Stemmet was one of the directors. The corporation was deregistered by the Companies and Intellectual Assets Commission (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in distributing yearly experiences.

A fresh entity Along with the exact name was subsequently registered as a private organization, but with Stemmet not a director, As outlined by CIPC data. In its place, a family member, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk had been appointed as administrators.

Over the evening of twelve April 2021 and into the subsequent morning, the Crete Highway premises have been cleared and also the equipment was eliminated, according to an affidavit by Meuwese. The devices was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent inside the Athlone industrial space, which housed many of Stemmet’s companies and a new “minstrel museum”, As outlined by a leaked investigative report commissioned by the NLC. The investigator also photographed the tools at the new premises.

Having said that, the meant new museum site, just like the previous a single in Wetton, was effectively far from any of Cape Town’s vacationer routes and website visitors couldn't entry it. There was no signage about the constructing indicating that it housed a museum.

Stemmet’s corporations vacated the premises previously this year right after he fell ill.

The funding to ascertain a museum wasn't the sole lottery grant which the CTMCA acquired. In 2021, the Affiliation was allocated R100,000 and R1.5-million in Covid aid grants. The NLC originally refused to expose who experienced obtained Covid funding but at last relented below media and parliamentary force.

Other lottery grants allotted to non-profit entities linked to Stemmet and his relatives and his associates include R1.4-million for your Cape Cultural Carnival and Functions Committee in 2019/twenty, and an additional R500,000 in 2021/22, In line with NLC yearly studies. Stemmet is often a previous director with the committee and his wife, Zainonesa, is presently a director.

And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Association, which happens to be registered within the CTMCA’s former Crete Highway workplaces, was allotted R190,000 in 2019/20, and an additional 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 following the NLC lifted questions about remarkable reports connected with before funding received because of the CTMCA.

GroundUp has verified which the SIU is investigating the lottery funding obtained through the CTMCA.

Also underneath investigation is a R1-million payment from the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which in turn compensated R500,000 of the to attorneys acting in the purchase of the R27-million mansion for previous NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.

MDU also acted for a conduit for an additional R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, a business wherein the wife of previous NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, toward the purchase of the mansion. Zibsimanzi gained R4.8-million to stage a rural soccer Event in Limpopo right after Letwaba Individually advised which the grant be paid to his wife’s company.

GroundUp sent issues to Stemmet via SMS but he had not replied by the time of publication.