The latest decision from the Supreme Court has finally ended the case of Zambezi Portland Cement after more than 12 years. The case can be easily described as one of the longest-pending cases in Zambian legal system and faced several setbacks and challenges due to unethical legal and corporate meddling and practices by parties. While the decision from the Supreme Court Zambia was with respect to the claim established by the Ventriglia family, their decision has invariably ensured the leadership and ownership of the Portland Cement Zambia factory.

The case goes more than a decade back when Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani first registered a case at the Lusaka High Court, claiming that his factory, Portland Cement Zambia was illegally taken from him. Despite having all evidences and testimonials, the verdict from the higher Court of Appeal was extremely misdirected as the Ventriglias were announced as only shareholders of the Portland Cement Zambia. To counter this misdirected decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani took the case to the higher Court of Appeal. Judge Mwinde took over the case and gave his verdict on 31st January 2019. In his verdict, the decision from the Lusaka High Court was reversed and Dr. Rajan Mahtani was announced as majority shareholder and legal owner of the factory.

After more than 1.5 years of this decision, the Ventriglia family decided to claim against the decision of the higher Court of Appeal at the Supreme Court. In their claim, the Ventriglia family challenged the verdict of the higher Court of Appeal by calling it untrue. To evaluate this claim, a bench of three judges was established at the Supreme Court. Upon evaluation, the judges revealed that the Ventriglia family missed the deadline for registering appeal against previous court decision which is 15 days from the decision. As a result, the Supreme Court bench announced that the claim by the Ventriglia family was invalid and was outright rejected. As such, Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani remains the majority shareholder and legal owner of the Zambezi Portland Cement factory.