The struggle for Portland Cement Zambia is halfway over. Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani worked tirelessly for more than a decade to get back legal ownership of Portland Cement. First it was Lusaka High Court where the case was registered after making claims that the factory was unethically taken over. However, the final judgement came from the Court of Appeal wherein justice Mwinde declared Dr. Rajan Mahtani as the legal owner and majority shareholder of Portland Cement with payment of one billion kwachas and ownership of 58 percent shares of the factory. This decision came on 31st January 2019 after more than a decade of wait from Dr. Mahtani.
One would think that Dr. Rajan Mahtani can now finally rest after this historic win over the long-running case. However, this is not the case. The Portland Cement factory was under dispute for more than a decade and during this time, the factory’s productions and performance degraded significantly. It is quite clear that the party taking unethical and illegal control over the factory did not have any intentions of managing the factory in any condition. The present condition of the factory is pathetic with rotting and rusted machineries and equipment, workers not being paid and lack of any financial aid for the improvement of factory’s performance. Many people associated with the factory and the case even said that Dr. Rajan Mahtani should have left the factory after the misdirected loss at the Lusaka High Court. However, Dr. Mahtani, by his very nature, has never been the one to leave his establishments and ventures midway, no matter the condition and situation. This is the very reason Dr. Mahtani approached the higher Court of Appeal when everyone else lost hope of getting back the factory. Now that the factory is a legal belonging of Dr. Mahtani, he is going to do his best for improving the condition of the factory and bringing back its original glory.
