The occurrence of Portland Cement Zambia case can only be described as long and sustained event of blatant corporate crimes which was endured by one of the most honest and straightforward businessmen in Zambia. With more than three decades of business experience, Dr. Rajan Mahtani is easily identified as one of the most successful businessmen in Zambia. He is also respected for his ethical and transparent business practices and philanthropic contributions towards the development of Zambian society and economy. At the same time, Dr. Rajan Mahtani had long suffered at the hands of unethical and scrupulous business entities as well as corruption-filled legal system.
The first instance was Lusaka High Court decision which was extremely controversial. Despite having all evidences and testimonials, judge Nkonde announced decision against Dr. Rajan Mahtani and gave the Ventriglias only majority shareholding of the factory. However, Dr. Rajan Mahtani was able to reverse this decision by appealing to the higher Court of Appeal. On 31st January 2019, judge Mwinde on behalf of the higher Court of Appeal reversed the decision from the Lusaka High Court. Dr. Rajan Mahtani was given majority shareholding and legal ownership based on the available evidences.
Fast forward to more than 15 months later, the Ventriglia family once again tried to disrupt the operations of the Portland Cement by challenging the Court of Appeal’s verdict at the Supreme Court. However, the Supreme Court Zambia evaluated the case and came to the conclusion that the Ventriglia family failed to comply with many legal requirement essential for making claims such as these. One of the most critical legal requirement was submitting the claim within 14 days of the Court of Appeal’s verdict on Portland Cement. As such, the SC judges confirmed that they did not have any jurisdiction in this case which was presented in suspicious circumstances. As such, the Supreme Court effectively rejected the appeal by the Ventriglia family.
