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

Richard “Pot” Stemmet is experiencing prosecution following gear compensated for with cash from your Lottery was removed from a Cape City developing he rented.
Stemmet is to look in court in January.
Based on a prosecutor the prison fees could consist of fraud, removal of kit that had been hooked up via the Sheriff and interfering that has a Metropolis of Cape Town electricity meter.
The fees stem from a complaint laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, in a very civil court make a difference, is trying to find to Recuperate around R2.5-million in unpaid lease, interest, authorized charges and harm to a rented making in Crete Road, in the commercial spot of Wetton in Cape Town.
The developing was Beforehand the headquarters in the Cape City Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA) and is wherever a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating town’s generations-old minstrel society was supposedly running.
Convicted legal Richard “Pot” Stemmet is experiencing prosecution for theft and fraud after machines paid out for with Lottery funds was faraway from a Cape Town constructing.

Stemmet was arrested by the Specialised Professional Crime Device on 16 October 2024 and explained to to appear during the Wynberg Justice of the peace’s Court on 21 November.

GroundUp attended courtroom around the day however the subject wasn't placed on the court roll as the investigating officer didn't produce the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to seem in courtroom in January.

The criminal costs stem from the grievance laid by Stemmet’s landlord, Sean Meuwese, who's searching for to recover about R2.5-million in unpaid rent, desire, authorized costs and harm to a rented building in Crete Street, in the industrial place of Wetton in Cape Town.

The making was Formerly the headquarters of your Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Affiliation (CTMCA). This is when a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the town’s hundreds of years-aged minstrel society was supposedly operating.

The premises also housed many businesses owned by Stemmet, whom police have described as a medicine superior flier. Amongst the businesses Stemmet ran from your premises ended up a hat producing enterprise and a nightclub. Stemmet continues to be arrested numerous instances for gun and drug-connected offences and served time for armed robbery within the nineteen eighties.

In keeping with an SMS despatched to Meuwese with the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in court on 30 January 2025.

Whilst Stemmet is but to generally be presented using a cost sheet, probable costs, incorporate fraud, elimination of apparatus that had been connected through the Sheriff, and interfering by using a Metropolis of Cape Town electrical energy meter, In line with an e-mail sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor managing the subject.

A grant of virtually R13-million to establish the minstrel museum was part of much more than R64-million in Lottery money allotted on the CTMCA among 2003 and 2017, with the majority of the money - about R54.3-million - paid out during the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 fiscal years, In line with Countrywide Lotteries Fee (NLC) annual reviews.

Stemmet was appointed a director with the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His spouse Zainonesa and daughter Raziah ongoing ตา ว จ หวย as two of many administrators on the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed as a director in 2021.

In keeping with Meuwese, the creating was leased to Stalph 164, an in depth Company of which Stemmet was one of the directors. The corporate was deregistered by the businesses and Mental Assets Fee (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in publishing once-a-year experiences.

A new entity Using the identical name was subsequently registered as a private enterprise, but with Stemmet now not a director, As outlined by CIPC data. As an alternative, a family member, Ra’ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk were appointed as administrators.

Around the night of 12 April 2021 and into the next early morning, the Crete Street premises were being cleared along with the equipment was taken out, according to an affidavit by Meuwese. The products was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent in the Athlone industrial location, which housed various of Stemmet’s businesses as well as a new “minstrel museum”, As outlined by a leaked investigative report commissioned by the NLC. The investigator also photographed the equipment at the new premises.

Nevertheless, the supposed new museum site, like the aged just one in Wetton, was very well from any of Cape Town’s vacationer routes and website visitors could not entry it. There was no signage around the setting up indicating that it housed a museum.

Stemmet’s corporations vacated the premises earlier this 12 months following he fell sick.

The funding to determine a museum wasn't the sole lottery grant the CTMCA been given. In 2021, the association was allocated R100,000 and R1.5-million in Covid reduction grants. The NLC to begin with refused to expose who experienced obtained Covid funding but eventually relented less than media and parliamentary pressure.

Other lottery grants allocated to non-earnings entities connected to Stemmet and his spouse and children and his associates consist of R1.4-million for the Cape Cultural Carnival and Events Committee in 2019/twenty, and an additional R500,000 in 2021/22, In line with NLC annual experiences. Stemmet is often a former director of the committee and his spouse, Zainonesa, is presently a director.

And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Affiliation, which can be registered at the CTMCA’s former Crete Highway offices, was allocated R190,000 in 2019/twenty, and an extra R635,000 in 2021/22 for any “craft, woodwork and structure programme”. Even so, it seems that the 2021/22 payment was withheld once the NLC lifted questions on excellent reviews relevant to before funding gained via the CTMCA.

GroundUp has verified which the SIU is investigating the lottery funding gained because of the CTMCA.

Also underneath investigation is often a R1-million payment because of the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which consequently paid R500,000 of the to lawyers performing in the purchase of the R27-million mansion for former NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.

MDU also acted as being a conduit for an extra R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, a business by which the spouse of previous NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, in direction of the acquisition in the mansion. Zibsimanzi been given R4.8-million to phase a rural soccer Event in Limpopo right after Letwaba Individually suggested the grant be paid out to his spouse’s organization.

GroundUp despatched questions to Stemmet by way of SMS but he had not replied by the time of publication.