By now, the case of Portland Cement Zambia is known to almost all citizens associated with the corporate culture of Zambia. As it is known, Portland Cement Zambia is a noted cement-manufacturing factory which was established under the leadership of Dr. Rajan Mahtani. However, the cement factory was illegally taken over after which, a case was filed at the Lusaka High Court where it went for more than a decade. Despite sharing numerous documents and evidences from Dr. Mahtani’s end, the final decision by the Lusaka High Court judge was a complete mismatch. As per the judgment by Justice Nkonde of Lusaka High Court, the Ventriglias were only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement.
However, Dr. Rajan Mahtani did not lose hope and then re-appealed the case, this time to the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal is among the highest judicial systems within Zambia and it did not disappointed Dr. Mahtani. On 31st January 2019, the Court of Appeal announced its final decision on the Portland Cement Zambia case, which was almost nine months after the initial decision from the Lusaka High Court. As per the Court of Appeal, Finsbury Investments owns 58 percent shares at the Zambezi Portland Cement and is the majority shareholder. The Ventriglias own 42 percent shares at the Zambezi Portland and are the minority shareholders. This automatically gives the legal ownership and proprietorship of the factory to Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments.
Furthermore, Justice Mwinde who took the case at the Court of Appeal also discarded all allegations of forgery. It was concluded that the practice of mechanically placing signatures is common across the Zambezi Portland Cement. It was also found that Claudio Ventriglia, an important member of the Ventriglia family, engaged in similar practice. Therefore, such allegations were dismissed. The Court of Appeal provided a timeline of three months from the date of judgment for both parties during which the process of regularization of sales must be completed.
