Attempt By Ventriglia Family To Change Portland Cement Ownership Becomes Unsuccessful

The case of Portland cement Zambia was actually over when the higher Court of Appeal announced its final decision on the case. According to this decision, the majority shareholding and ownership of the Portland Cement Zambia factory went to Dr. Mahtani owned Finsbury Investment with 58 percent shares. On the other hand, the Ventriglia owned Ital Terrazzo Limited held just 42 percent shares of the factory and did not have any majority shareholding or legal ownership over the factory. With this verdict, the higher Court of Appeal judge effectively reversed the decision from the Lusaka High Court and even condemned it as misdirected and unjust.

For more than 1.5 years of this decision, Portland Cement factory worked well under the leadership of Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani. However, few weeks earlier the Ventriglia family decided to appeal against this decision at the higher Court of Appeal. That too at the Supreme Court Zambia which is the highest-level legal and judiciary system of Zambia. It seems like it was a well thought plan by the Ventriglia family which is why they decided to appeal so late. However, the notorious family known for their unethical and sometimes illegal practices failed enormously when their appeal was dug deeper.

A bench comprising of three Supreme Court judges was established for evaluating the claim by the Ventriglia family. These included judge Mumba Malila, Judge Royda Kaoma and Judge Michael Musonda. Together, the judges found that the claim by the Ventriglia family was beyond the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. This is due to the fact that any claim against previous court decisions must be made within 14 days of the court decision itself. In the current scenario, the verdict from the higher Court of Appeal on the Portland Cement case was given on 31st January 2019. This means the Ventriglia family is very late in submitting their proposition. As a result, the claim by the Ventriglia family was effectively rejected by the Supreme Court Zambia.