The year 2019 has been extremely significant for Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani, a well-known businesses, entrepreneur and philanthropist from Zambia. In this year, Dr. Rajan Mahtani won his ever-going case associated with Portland Cement Zambia. On the 31st of January 2019, final announcement on the long pending Portland Cement Zambia case was made by the Court of Appeal. The judge residing the case was justice Mwinde who gave a transparent and honest judgement after evaluating the case for nine months. This time-period was must lesser compared to the time spent during the previous judge, Lusaka High Court.
According to the final decision from justice Mwinde, Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani was announced as only majority shareholder and legal owner with 58 percent Zambezi Portland shares. At the same time, the Ventriglias were having only 48 percent shares and therefore were found to be minority shareholders at Zambezi Portland Cement. Justice Mwinde further cleared that that this decision was similar to the one given during 2007 with result to original shareholders agreement. These decisions clearly indicate that Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani is the actual owner of the factory.
This decision from the Court of Appeal, though justified, transparent and past, came a little late. The first time Dr. Rajan Mahtani registered this case was more than a decade ago when the factory was unethically taken over. After this, a case was registered originally at the Lusaka High Court where it proceeded for more than a decade. Despite sharing all required evidences, testimonials and other descriptions, the judgement was late. After years of case proceedings, the Lusaka High Court announced its final decision during the month of May, 2018. However, this decision was misdirected as justice Nkonde from the Lusaka High Court announced Ventriglias as only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland, which was controversial and misdirected.
Now that the final decision has been announced and the factory goes back to Dr. Rajan Mahtani, the next challenging task for Dr. Mahtani is reviving the factory.