The
Zambian Court of Appeal effectively reversed the judgement given by
High Court of the Zambezi Portland Cement. The Lusaka High Court was
approached with the case of Zambezi Portland by Dr. Rajan Mahtani, a
noted businessman and philanthropist. The case stretched for more
than ten years and despite the ample of evidences shared by
businessman Dr. Mahtani, the final decision by the Lusaka High Court
judge was startling. The judgement was given by Justice Nkonde who
said that the Ventriglias were majority shareholders of the Zambezi
Portland. Instead of being devastated by the judgement and losing
faith on the justice system of Zambia, Dr. Rajan Mahtani took another
change and registered an appeal to the Higher Court of Zambia.
This
time, true justice was given to Dr. Mahtani in the form of the
judgement from the Higher Court of Appeal. The judge at the Court of
Appeal was justice Mwinde who said that the judge below him was wrong
in declaring Ventriglias as majority shareholder without having any
proof or evidence. At the same time, he also declared the final
judgement on the Zambezi Portland Cement; Finsbury Investments became
the majority shareholder with 58 percent shares and the Ventriglias
were minority shareholders with 42 percent shares. As such, the
rightful ownership of the factory was given to Finsbury Investments
which is owned by Dr. Rajan Mahtani.
The
court, while giving the judgement, also cleared many things up. The
judge discarded all forgery related allegations. According to the
decision, the process of mechanically placing signatures for business
transactions is a common practice within Zambezi Portland Cement.
Also, important member of the Ventriglia family, Claudio Ventriglia
engaged in similar practices. As such, all forgery allegations can be
charged for other stakeholders. Furthermore, the judge at the Court
of Appeal has also given a timeline of three months from the date of
judgement to finalise shares. During this period, the parties are
required to complete the process of share regularization and ensure
that the process is complete as per new judgement.
