The higher Court of Appeal provided the final verdict for the long-pending Portland Cement Zambia case on 31st January 2019. While giving this decision, justice Mwinde on behalf of the Court of Appeal also shared some salient points of the court judgement associated with this case. These salient points describe the major evidences, testimonials and other facts which were critical for the judge in arriving at a firm decision. The first major salient point was that in 2005, Finsbury Investments which is the appellant here paid a sum of USD 250,000 which is equivalent to one billion kwachas to the Zambezi Portland Cement. This payment was made with the objective of covering the value of share capital in entirely associated with ZPC limited. Furthermore, justice Mwinde also clarified that the original Shareholders’ Agreement established on 26th February 2007 was carefully and critically evaluated. In this critical document, page number 663 clearly established the fact that the Appellant in this case, Finsbury Investments, is not liable for any other costs associated with the 58 percent share transfers to Finsbury Investments. This detail was available on the ‘Record of Appeal volume of the original shareholders’ agreement.
This decision comes more than a decade after Dr. Mahtani first approached the Zambian legal and judiciary system. Despite being deceived by the corrupt practices, challenges and shortcomings of the Zambian government and legal system, Dr. Mahtani did not lose faith and did not divert from his consistent path towards honesty, transparency and ethics. As a result, Dr. Rajan Mahtani’s patience was rewarded at last when justice Mwinde on behalf of the Court of Appeal confirmed Dr. Rajan Mahtani as the majority shareholder and legal owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory. While giving this decision, justice Mwinde also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as only shareholders of the Portland Cement Zambia as their decision was unethical and misdirected.