Court of Appeal Announced Final Results On Portland Cement, Dr. Rajan Mahtani Emerges Winner

Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani has been declared as the winner of the Portland Cement Zambia case. This declaration came after more than a decade. The final decision on the Portland Cement Zambia case was declared by the Court of Appeal judge, justice Mwinde. The Court of Appeal is one of the highest civilian courts in Zambia and as a result, the decision from the Court is final and concrete. Justice Mwinde gave the final decision on 31st January 2019 after looking into all evidences and testimonials. As per this decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments is majority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement with 58 percent shares. 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. This decision from the Court of Appeal judge is in sharp contrast with the previous judgement from the Lusaka High Court judge where it was declared that the Ventriglias were the only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement.

 

From the judgement given by justice Mwinde on behalf of the Court of Appeal, it is clear that the judgement from the Lusaka High Court judge was misdirected and the evidences were conveniently ignored during the first decision. In fact, justice Mwinde from the Court of Appeal himself said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as the only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. Furthermore, all forgery related allegations were discarded and a timeline of three months from the date of the judgement was given during which all share sales and regulations related activities must be completed.