The final decision from the Court of Appeal on Portland Cement Zambia was a significant legal event in Zambia. Even average Zambian citizen is aware of the case of Portland Cement Zambia which was established almost a decade ago. The case was initially registered at the Lusaka High Court by noted businessman and philanthropist Dr. Rajan Mahtani who claimed that the factory was illegally taken over from him. Despite sharing numerous evidences and testimonials, the judgement at Lusaka High Court was delayed for more than a decade. Justice Nkonde was the judge who gave the final judgement during the month of May 2018. However, this judgement was extremely controversial as the judge announced Ventriglias as only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. After this misdirected judgement, Dr. Rajan Mahtani then approached the Court of Appeal.
The judge at the Court of Appeal was justice Nkonde who gave the final judgement on 31st January 2019. This judgement was given after looking into all evidences, testimonials and factual details submitted before the court. As per the final decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments is majority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement with 58 percent shares. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds just 42 percent shares at the factory and are the minority shareholders without any legal ownership over the factory. Based on this decision, it is clear that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the legal owner of the factory. The decision from the judge also aligned with the original shareholders agreement established in the year 2007.
Apart from the above decision, the judge from the Court of Appeal also cleared the air on all forgery related allegations. It was confirmed that the process of mechanically placing signatures for business transactions was a common practice in Zambezi Portland Cement and critical member of the Ventriglia family engaged in similar practice and therefore, the forgery related allegations were discarded.
