Court of Appeal announces results on Portland Cement Zambia, Dr. Rajan Mahtani winner

Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani has been struggling for more than ten years for the ethical justice with respect to Portland Cement Zambia. The case was registered at the Lusaka High Court where it took more than ten years for the judge to provide judgement. Despite numerous evidences, testimonials and factual data, the judge at the Lusaka High Court was unable to provide right judgement in the case. The judge at the Lusaka High Court was justice Nkonde who gave the final decision declaring Ventriglias were only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement.

Dr. Rajan Mahtani

To counter this judgement, Dr. Rajan Mahtani then approached the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal is among the highest civilian courts in Zambia and Dr. Rajan Mahtani approached the court with the hope of getting justice. The judge at the Court of Appeal was judge Mwinde who gave the final judgement on 31st January 2019 after looking into all evidences and testimonials. According to the final judgement, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments holds 58 percent shares at the factory and is the majority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds just 42 percent shares at the factory and is the minority shareholder without any legal ownership over the factory. Based on this decision, it is clear that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the legal owner of the factory.

While giving this decision, the judge from the Court of Appeal also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement as this decision was misdirected and without any evidence. Furthermore, the court of appeal judge also discarded all forgery related allegations and confirmed that the process of mechanically placing signatures was a common practice in Zambia. As a result, forgery related allegations were found to be unwarranted and a timeline of three months was given for completing the share sales process.