Justice Mwinde From Court Of Appeal Announces Dr. Mahtani As Real Owner Of ZPC

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.