Richard “Pot” Stemmet, still left, and an investigator appointed through the National Lotteries Fee to investigate the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Image from an investigative report commissioned through the NLC

Richard “Pot” Stemmet is dealing with prosecution after tools paid out for with resources from the Lottery was removed from a Cape Town constructing he rented.
Stemmet is to seem in court in January.
Based on a prosecutor the criminal prices could include things like fraud, elimination of equipment that had been hooked up with the Sheriff and interfering using a City of Cape City electrical energy meter.
The fees stem from a grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, inside a civil courtroom make a difference, is seeking to Get well over R2.5-million in unpaid lease, fascination, lawful expenses and harm to a rented building in Crete Road, in the commercial area of Wetton in Cape Town.
The constructing was Earlier the headquarters from the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA) and is particularly exactly where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s centuries-aged minstrel society was supposedly running.
Convicted criminal Richard “Pot” Stemmet is dealing with prosecution for theft and fraud right after tools paid for with Lottery cash was removed from a Cape Town developing.

Stemmet was arrested via the Specialised Professional Crime Device on 16 Oct 2024 and advised to look while in the Wynberg Justice of the peace’s Court on 21 November.

GroundUp attended courtroom to the working day even so the make any difference 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 courtroom in January.

The prison charges stem from the grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, that is trying to find to Get well in excess of R2.5-million in unpaid hire, fascination, legal prices and damage to a rented developing in Crete Highway, in the commercial location of Wetton in Cape City.

The creating was Beforehand the headquarters on the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s centuries-outdated minstrel culture was supposedly running.

The premises also housed numerous corporations owned by Stemmet, whom police have described as a drugs significant flier. Among the the companies Stemmet ran from the premises had been a hat production corporation and a nightclub. Stemmet is arrested various periods for gun and drug-relevant offences and served time for armed robbery during the eighties.

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

Although Stemmet is still to become offered with a cost sheet, possible fees, consist of fraud, removal of apparatus that had been connected because of the Sheriff, and interfering with a City of Cape Town electrical energy meter, In line with an e mail despatched to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor managing the matter.

A grant of almost R13-million to determine the minstrel museum was part of much more than R64-million in Lottery funds allotted into the CTMCA involving 2003 and 2017, with the bulk of The cash - in excess of R54.3-million - paid out within the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 financial yrs, In line with National Lotteries Commission (NLC) annual reviews.

Stemmet was appointed a director from the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His spouse Zainonesa and daughter Raziah ongoing หวย หุ้น ช่อง 9 as two of a number of administrators with the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed being a director in 2021.

As outlined by Meuwese, the building was leased to Stalph 164, an in depth Company of which Stemmet was one among the administrators. The business was deregistered by the Companies and Intellectual Residence Commission (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in distributing once-a-year reports.

A different entity Using the very same identify was subsequently registered as a private organization, but with Stemmet now not a director, Based on CIPC information. As a substitute, a relative, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk were being appointed as administrators.

To the night of 12 April 2021 and into the following early morning, the Crete Street premises have been cleared along with the machinery was removed, Based on an affidavit by Meuwese. The gear was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent from the Athlone industrial spot, which housed a number of of Stemmet’s enterprises and also a new “minstrel museum”, In accordance with a leaked investigative report commissioned with the NLC. The investigator also photographed the gear at the new premises.

However, the supposed new museum web site, similar to the aged 1 in Wetton, was properly faraway from any of Cape Town’s tourist routes and visitors couldn't obtain it. There was no signage over the developing indicating that it housed a museum.

Stemmet’s businesses vacated the premises before this 12 months soon after he fell ill.

The funding to ascertain a museum was not the only real lottery grant the CTMCA received. In 2021, the Affiliation was allocated R100,000 and R1.5-million in Covid aid grants. The NLC originally refused to expose who had been given Covid funding but eventually relented below media and parliamentary tension.

Other lottery grants allocated to non-earnings entities associated with Stemmet and his loved ones and his associates include R1.4-million to the Cape Cultural Carnival and Events Committee in 2019/20, and an extra R500,000 in 2021/22, In line with NLC yearly stories. Stemmet is usually a previous director with the committee and his wife, Zainonesa, is presently a director.

And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Affiliation, and that is registered within the CTMCA’s former Crete Highway offices, was allotted R190,000 in 2019/twenty, and a further R635,000 in 2021/22 for a “craft, woodwork and structure programme”. Even so, it appears that the 2021/22 payment was withheld following the NLC lifted questions about remarkable reports relevant to before funding obtained because of the CTMCA.

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

Also beneath investigation is usually a R1-million payment from the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which in turn paid R500,000 of the to legal professionals performing in the acquisition of the R27-million mansion for former NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.

MDU also acted like a conduit for an additional R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, a business where the wife of previous NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, toward the purchase of your mansion. Zibsimanzi gained R4.8-million to phase a rural soccer Event in Limpopo immediately after Letwaba personally proposed that the grant be paid out to his spouse’s enterprise.

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