Richard “Pot” Stemmet, remaining, and an investigator appointed from the Nationwide Lotteries Fee to analyze the Lottery-funded minstrel museum: Image from an investigative report commissioned via the NLC

Richard “Pot” Stemmet is facing prosecution soon after products paid for with funds within the Lottery was removed from a Cape City making he rented.
Stemmet is to appear in court docket in January.
In line with a prosecutor the criminal prices could incorporate fraud, removing of equipment that were hooked up from the Sheriff and interfering that has a Town of Cape Town electric power meter.
The fees stem from the criticism laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, in a civil court make a difference, is trying to find to Get well around R2.five-million in unpaid lease, curiosity, legal expenses and harm to a rented setting up in Crete Highway, in the commercial location of Wetton in Cape City.
The making was Earlier the headquarters in the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA) and is where by a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the town’s generations-outdated minstrel culture was supposedly running.
Convicted prison Richard “Pot” Stemmet is going through prosecution for theft and fraud after products compensated for with Lottery funds was removed from a Cape Town making.

Stemmet was arrested by the Specialised Industrial Crime Unit on 16 October 2024 and informed to seem from the Wynberg Justice of the peace’s Courtroom on 21 November.

GroundUp attended courtroom about the day even so the subject was not placed on the court docket roll since the investigating officer did not produce the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in court in January.

The prison fees stem from a grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who is trying to get to Get well more than R2.five-million in unpaid rent, fascination, lawful fees and harm to a rented developing in Crete Street, in the economic location of Wetton in Cape City.

The building was Formerly the headquarters with the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is when a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city’s centuries-previous minstrel tradition was supposedly running.

The premises also housed various businesses owned by Stemmet, whom law enforcement have called a prescription drugs high flier. Among the companies Stemmet ran with the premises ended up a hat production business and a nightclub. Stemmet has long been arrested various instances for gun and drug-associated offences and served time for armed theft within the nineteen eighties.

In accordance with an SMS despatched to Meuwese from the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in court docket on thirty January 2025.

Though Stemmet is nonetheless for being offered that has a demand sheet, possible expenses, incorporate fraud, elimination of apparatus that had been connected with the Sheriff, and interfering by using a Metropolis of Cape Town electrical energy meter, In line with an e-mail despatched to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor managing the subject.

A grant of almost R13-million to determine the minstrel museum was Component of a lot more than R64-million in Lottery funds allotted towards the CTMCA between 2003 and 2017, with the bulk of The cash - above R54.three-million - paid while in the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 monetary yrs, In accordance with Nationwide Lotteries Fee (NLC) once-a-year reviews.

Stemmet was appointed a director on the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His spouse Zainonesa and daughter Raziah ongoing lottovip as two of a number of administrators from the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed for a director in 2021.

In accordance with Meuwese, the setting up was leased to Stalph 164, a close corporation of which Stemmet was one among the administrators. The company was deregistered by the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in submitting annual reports.

A fresh entity Together with the very same title was subsequently registered as a private business, but with Stemmet now not a director, In keeping with CIPC data. As a substitute, a member of the family, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk had been appointed as administrators.

About the night of 12 April 2021 and into the subsequent morning, the Crete Street premises were cleared plus the machinery was taken out, according to an affidavit by Meuwese. The devices was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent in the Athlone industrial spot, which housed various of Stemmet’s companies plus a new “minstrel museum”, As outlined by a leaked investigative report commissioned by the NLC. The investigator also photographed the gear at the new premises.

However, the meant new museum web page, like the aged just one in Wetton, was very well from any of Cape Town’s vacationer routes and guests couldn't accessibility it. There was no signage around the setting up indicating that it housed a museum.

Stemmet’s firms vacated the premises earlier this 12 months after he fell sick.

The funding to determine a museum wasn't the only lottery grant the CTMCA been given. In 2021, the association was allocated R100,000 and R1.5-million in Covid relief grants. The NLC to begin with refused to expose who experienced received Covid funding but ultimately relented beneath media and parliamentary force.

Other lottery grants allotted to non-financial gain entities connected to Stemmet and his spouse and children and his associates involve R1.four-million for that Cape Cultural Carnival and Gatherings Committee in 2019/20, and a further R500,000 in 2021/22, according to NLC yearly studies. Stemmet is actually a previous director on the committee and his wife, Zainonesa, is at this time a director.

And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Association, which can be registered at the CTMCA’s previous Crete Highway workplaces, was allocated R190,000 in 2019/twenty, and an additional R635,000 in 2021/22 to get a “craft, woodwork and style programme”. However, it seems that the 2021/22 payment was withheld after the NLC elevated questions on fantastic experiences connected to earlier funding acquired via the CTMCA.

GroundUp has confirmed that the SIU is investigating the lottery funding acquired via the CTMCA.

Also under investigation can be a R1-million payment from the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which in turn paid R500,000 of the to attorneys acting in the acquisition of the 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 business during which the spouse of former NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, towards the acquisition of the mansion. Zibsimanzi been given R4.8-million to stage a rural soccer Event in Limpopo immediately after Letwaba Individually advised which the grant be compensated to his wife’s organization.

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