Portland Cement Zambia factory is a case which has baffled us all. The cement-manufacturing factory was launched by noted businessman and philanthropist Dr. Mahtani. After launching the factory, it was successfully run for a while. During this time, Dr. Rajan Mahtani managed to take the factory to great heights, with production volume going up on a regular basis and employees enjoying wages above industry standards. However, things changed dramatically when the factory was unethically captured from Dr. Rajan Mahtani. After it was taken over, the factory production went down dramatically as it was not managed properly. According to the reports, the factory assets were damaged and majority of the workers left due to non-payment of wages. Those who kept on working were not getting their wages for many months in a row. The factory black box was continuously looted by goons and the growth of the factory went to a standstill.
All the while, Dr. Rajan Mahtani kept fighting one of the longest court battles of his life at the Lusaka High Court. After a long and dragged court proceeding, justice Nkonde on behalf of the Lusaka High Court gave the final announcement. However, it was extremely controversial as going against the evidences and testimonials, the judge announced Ventriglias as only shareholders of Portland Cement Zambia. Despite this extremely controversial decision, Dr. Mahtani did not lose hope and approached the Court of Appeal. The final decision from the Court of Appeal came on 31st January 2019. According to this decision, Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani was found to be the majority shareholder with 58 percent shares at the factory. At the same time, Ventriglias were found to be the minority shareholders with 42 percent shares. From this decision, it was a clear establishment that the real ownership of Portland Cement went to Dr. Rajan Mahtani.
Now that the Portland Cement Zambia factory is back with its actual owner, a great task lies for Dr. Mahtani to revive this factory.
