The Court of Appeal is regarded as the highest court for civilian, constitutional and even criminal cases. The Zambian law states that the judgement given by the Court of Appeal will be final. As such, the Court of Appeal provided its final decision on the long-pending Portland Cement Zambia case on 31st January 2019 and this decision is deemed concrete. According to this decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani via his company Finsbury Investments paid a sum of 1 billion kwachas which is equal to USD 250,000. This payment was made for covering the share capital issues to Finsbury Investments on behalf of Dr. Rajan Mahtani. This share capital belonged to Zambezi Portland Cement. Furthermore, it was also found that this official transaction took place in the year 2005 and was clearly written on the original contract of shareholders’ agreement created in the year 2007. In this agreement, page number 663 of the record of appeal clearly stated the above facts. Furthermore, the evidences and the original shareholders agreement also clarified the fact that mechanically placing signatures for business transactions was a common practice at the Zambezi Portland Cement and an accepted one and as such, all fraud related appeals were discarded by the judge.
Now that the Court of Appeal has announced its final decision, things are becoming clear for the media and the general people. The issue of corruption and unethical practices is being raised here. Despite winning the case after a battle spanning over a decade, Dr. Rajan Mahtani faces significant challenge now. This challenge is to bring back Zambezi Portland Cement to its original glory. This process is going to be extremely difficult for Dr. Mahtani. However, given the sheer commitment, transparency, honesty and ethics with which Dr. Rajan Mahtani achieved justice, it can be said that the day is near when Zambezi Portland Cement will become one of the biggest producers of Portland Cement across the nation.