Richard “Pot” Stemmet, still left, and an investigator appointed because of the Nationwide Lotteries Commission to research the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Photograph from an investigative report commissioned from the NLC

Richard “Pot” Stemmet is going through prosecution right after devices paid for with resources from the Lottery was faraway from a Cape City constructing he rented.
Stemmet is to seem in courtroom in January.
As outlined by a prosecutor the felony expenses could include things like fraud, removing of kit that were attached by the Sheriff and interfering with a Town of Cape Town electrical power meter.
The charges stem from the complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, in a civil courtroom issue, is in search of to Get better in excess of R2.5-million in unpaid rent, fascination, authorized costs and harm to a rented building in Crete Road, in the commercial spot of Wetton in Cape Town.
The making was previously the headquarters from the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA) and it is wherever a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the town’s generations-outdated minstrel lifestyle was supposedly working.
Convicted criminal Richard “Pot” Stemmet is going through prosecution for theft and fraud just after gear paid out for with Lottery money was removed from a Cape Town creating.

Stemmet was arrested through the Specialised Business Crime Unit on sixteen Oct 2024 and explained to to seem while in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on 21 November.

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

The felony charges stem from the criticism laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that is trying to get to recover over R2.5-million in unpaid hire, fascination, authorized charges and damage to a rented constructing in Crete Street, in the industrial region of Wetton in Cape City.

The constructing was previously the headquarters from the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s centuries-aged minstrel tradition was supposedly working.

The premises also housed numerous corporations owned by Stemmet, whom police have referred to as a medicine higher flier. Among the the businesses Stemmet ran within the premises had been a hat production corporation and a nightclub. Stemmet has become arrested quite a few instances for gun and drug-similar offences and served time for armed theft in the 1980s.

Based on an SMS despatched to Meuwese via the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in court on thirty January 2025.

Whilst Stemmet is still being presented with a demand sheet, doable prices, incorporate fraud, elimination of equipment that were attached via the Sheriff, and interfering having a City of Cape City electricity meter, In keeping with an email despatched to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor handling the subject.

A grant of virtually R13-million to determine the minstrel museum was Section of much more than R64-million in Lottery money allotted to your CTMCA concerning 2003 and 2017, with the majority of the money - more than R54.three-million - paid within the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 financial decades, In keeping with Nationwide Lotteries Fee (NLC) once-a-year reviews.

Stemmet was appointed a director in the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His spouse Zainonesa and daughter Raziah ongoing hihuay as two of several administrators of your organisation. Stemmet was reappointed as being a director in 2021.

As outlined by Meuwese, the constructing was leased to Stalph 164, a close corporation of which Stemmet was among the directors. The company was deregistered by the Companies and Intellectual Property Fee (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in publishing annual reports.

A brand new entity While using the similar identify was subsequently registered as a private enterprise, but with Stemmet not a director, In keeping with CIPC information. In its place, a loved one, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk ended up appointed as administrators.

To the evening of 12 April 2021 and into the subsequent morning, the Crete Highway premises have been cleared plus the machinery was eradicated, according to an affidavit by Meuwese. The devices was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent while in the Athlone industrial area, which housed quite a few of Stemmet’s corporations along with a new “minstrel museum”, In keeping with a leaked investigative report commissioned through the NLC. The investigator also photographed the machines at The brand new premises.

Even so, the meant new museum website, like the old a single in Wetton, was very well clear of any of Cape City’s vacationer routes and readers couldn't obtain it. There was no signage around the creating indicating that it housed a museum.

Stemmet’s firms vacated the premises previously this year following he fell unwell.

The funding to determine a museum was not the only lottery grant the CTMCA acquired. In 2021, the association was allotted R100,000 and R1.5-million in Covid reduction grants. The NLC initially refused to reveal who experienced received Covid funding but at last relented below media and parliamentary force.

Other lottery grants allotted to non-earnings entities associated with Stemmet and his relatives and his associates contain R1.4-million for that Cape Cultural Carnival and Activities Committee in 2019/20, and an additional R500,000 in 2021/22, In line with NLC once-a-year experiences. Stemmet is really a former director of the committee and his spouse, Zainonesa, is currently a director.

And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Association, that is registered in the CTMCA’s previous Crete Street workplaces, was allotted R190,000 in 2019/20, and an extra R635,000 in 2021/22 for a “craft, woodwork and design programme”. However, it appears that the 2021/22 payment was withheld once the NLC raised questions on fantastic experiences relevant to before funding obtained with the CTMCA.

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

Also underneath investigation is a R1-million payment because of 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 extra R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, a firm wherein the wife of previous NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, to the acquisition from the mansion. Zibsimanzi received R4.eight-million to phase a rural soccer tournament in Limpopo following Letwaba Individually suggested the grant be paid to his wife’s enterprise.

GroundUp sent issues to Stemmet through SMS but he experienced not replied by the point of publication.