Court Of Appeal Announces Final Decision On Portland Cement, Dr. Mahtani Declared Winner

Zambezi Portland Cement

The case of Portland Cement Zambia is age old. The case was registered by Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani, a noted businessman and philanthropist in Zambia. The case was registered at the Lusaka High Court by Dr. Mahtani claiming that the factory was illegally taken over from him. Despite sharing numerous evidences and testimonials, Lusaka High Court took more than a decade to announce the final judgement. Various reasons can be attributed to this significant pending in court decision including lack of visibility on the case, frequent transfer of judges as well as inability of the judges to make a firm decision on the case. The final judgement on the case was announced during the month of May, 2018. The judge who gave the decision was justice Nkonde and prior to the final decision, justice Nkonde had closed all case proceedings. It was also announced that the final decision will be given based on the submitted oral and written evidences. This was extremely positive news for Dr. Rajan Mahtani as majority of his evidences and testimonials were more than enough to prove his claim over the factory. The judgement from Lusaka High Court was, however, extremely controversial. According to this judgement, Ventriglias were announced as only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement.

To counter this decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani then approached the Court of Appeal. The judge at the Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde who gave the final judgement on the case on 31st January 2019 after looking into all evidences and testimonials. As per this final decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments holds 58 percent shares at the factory and is the majority shareholder of the factory. 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.