Machinery removed from "minstrel museum"
- Richard "Pot" Stemmet is facing prosecution after equipment paid for with funds from the Lottery was removed from a Cape Town building he rented.
- Stemmet is to appear in court in January.
- According to a prosecutor the criminal charges could include fraud, removal of equipment that had been attached by the Sheriff and interfering with a City of Cape Town electricity meter.
- The charges stem from a complaint laid by Stemmet's landlord, Sean Meuwese, who, in a civil court matter, is seeking to recover over R2.5-million in unpaid rent, interest, legal costs and damage to a rented building in Crete Road, in the industrial area of Wetton in Cape Town.
- The building was previously the headquarters of the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA) and is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city's centuries-old minstrel culture was supposedly operating.
Convicted criminal Richard "Pot" Stemmet is facing prosecution for theft and fraud after equipment paid for with Lottery funds was removed from a Cape Town building.
Stemmet was arrested by the Specialised Commercial Crime Unit on 16 October 2024 and told to appear in the Wynberg Magistrate's Court on 21 November.
GroundUp attended court on the day but the matter was not placed on the court roll because the investigating officer did not deliver the docket to prosecutors. Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in court in January.
The criminal charges stem from a complaint laid by Stemmet's landlord, Sean Meuwese, who is seeking to recover over R2.5-million in unpaid rent, interest, legal costs and damage to a rented building in Crete Road, in the industrial area of Wetton in Cape Town.
The building was previously the headquarters of the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association (CTMCA). This is where a non-existent, Lottery-funded museum celebrating the city's centuries-old minstrel culture was supposedly operating.
The premises also housed several businesses owned by Stemmet, whom police have described as a drugs high flier. Among the businesses Stemmet ran from the premises were a hat manufacturing company and a nightclub. Stemmet has been arrested several times for gun and drug-related offences and served time for armed robbery in the 1980s.
According to an SMS sent to Meuwese by the investigating officer, Stemmet has now been summonsed to appear in court on 30 January 2025.
Although Stemmet is yet to be presented with a charge sheet, possible charges, include fraud, removal of equipment that had been attached by the Sheriff, and interfering with a City of Cape Town electricity meter, according to an email sent to Meuwese by a senior prosecutor handling the matter,
A grant of almost R13-million to establish the minstrel museum was part of more than R64-million in Lottery funds allocated to the CTMCA between 2003 and 2017, with the bulk of the money - over R54.3-million - paid in the 2012/2013, 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 financial years, according to National Lotteries Commission (NLC) annual reports.
Stemmet was appointed a director of the CTMCA in September 1996 but resigned in December 2016. His wife Zainonesa and daughter Raziah continued as two of several directors of the organisation. Stemmet was reappointed as a director in 2021.
According to Meuwese, the building was leased to Stalph 164, a close corporation of which Stemmet was one of the directors. The company was deregistered by the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) in March 2023 for non-compliance in submitting annual reports.
A new entity with the same name was subsequently registered as a private company, but with Stemmet no longer a director, according to CIPC records. Instead, a family member, Ra'ees Stemmet, and Alfonzo van Niekerk were appointed as directors.
On the evening of 12 April 2021 and into the following morning, the Crete Road premises were cleared and the machinery was removed, according to an affidavit by Meuwese. The equipment was moved to new premises rented by Stemmet in Mymoena Crescent in the Athlone industrial area, which housed several of Stemmet's businesses and a new "minstrel museum", according to a leaked investigative report commissioned by the NLC. The investigator also photographed the equipment at the new premises.
However, the supposed new museum site, like the old one in Wetton, was well away from any of Cape Town's tourist routes and visitors could not access it. There was no signage on the building indicating that it housed a museum.
Stemmet's businesses vacated the premises earlier this year after he fell ill.
The funding to establish a museum was not the only lottery grant that the CTMCA received. In 2021, the association was allocated R100,000 and R1.5-million in Covid relief grants. The NLC initially refused to reveal who had received Covid funding but finally relented under media and parliamentary pressure.
Other lottery grants allocated to non-profit entities linked to Stemmet and his family and his associates include R1.4-million for the Cape Cultural Carnival and Events Committee in 2019/20, and a further R500,000 in 2021/22, according to NLC annual reports. Stemmet is a former director of the committee and his wife, Zainonesa, is currently a director.
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And, the Peninsula and District Carnival Association, which is registered at the CTMCA's former Crete Road offices, was allocated R190,000 in 2019/20, and a further R635,000 in 2021/22 for a "craft, woodwork and design programme". However, it appears that the 2021/22 payment was withheld after the NLC raised questions about outstanding reports related to earlier funding received by the CTMCA.
GroundUp has confirmed that the SIU is investigating the lottery funding received by the CTMCA.
Also under investigation is a R1-million payment by the CTMCA to MDU Consulting Engineers, which in turn paid R500,000 of this to lawyers acting in the purchase of a R27-million mansion for former NLC Board chairperson Alfred Nevhutanda.
MDU also acted as a conduit for a further R3-m payment by Zibsimanzi, a company in which the wife of former NLC COO Phillemon Letwaba was a director, towards the purchase of the mansion. Zibsimanzi received R4.8-million to stage a rural soccer tournament in Limpopo after Letwaba personally recommended that the grant be paid to his wife's company.
GroundUp sent questions to Stemmet via SMS but he had not replied by the time of publication.
