Court Of Appeal Closes The Long-Pending Case Of Portland Cement By Announcing Dr. Mahtani As Winner

It is a true saying that transparency, ethics and honesty go a long way. Despite numerous challenges and issues, Dr. Rajan Mahtani remained calm and followed a path of honesty and ethics. Portland Cement Zambia factory is a noted cement-manufacturing factory in Zambia. A case was registered by Dr. Raja Mahtani at the Lusaka High Court after the factory was illegally taken over from him. This started the long trial and proceedings at the Lusaka High Court. This continued for more than a decade. Despite sharing numerous evidences and testimonials, the final decision from the Lusaka High Court was a controversial one. The judge at the Lusaka High Court was justice Nkonde and according to his final decision given during the month of May 2018, Ventriglias were announced as only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. It is clear that this judgement was misdirected and as a result, Dr. Rajan Mahtani took the right step in approaching the Court of Appeal.

The judge at the Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde who gave the final judgement on 31st January 2019. This decision was given after looking into all evidences and testimonials which were conveniently ignored by the Lusaka High Court judge. According to this from decision from the Court of Appeal, Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the majority shareholder and owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory with his company Finsbury investments owning 58 percent shares at the factory. At the same time, Ventriglias are the minority shareholders without any legal ownership as their company Ital Terrazzo Limited held only 42 percent shares at the factory. This decision from the Court of Appeal also aligned with the original shareholders agreement established in the year 2007. Furthermore, Court of Appeal judge also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as only shareholders as this decision was misdirected and condemned the Lusaka High Court judgement.