Those who are honest, patient and transparent are the ones rewarded with justice. The case of Zambezi Portland Cement is age old wherein the Dr. Rajan Mahtani has been fighting for justice in a legal and transparent manner. Despite facing several difficulties and being at a disadvantage by following ethical and legal guidelines, Dr. Rajan Mahtani never tried to win the factory by unethical terms. Instead, he registered the case at the Lusaka High Court wherein the case stretched for more than ten years. Despite sharing critical evidences, the final judgement was given against Dr. Mahtani’s claims and as such, the case was further approached to Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal gave its final decision on 31st January 2019. According to this decision, Finsbury Investments holds 58 percent shares at the factory and is majority shareholder. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds 42 percent shares and is minority shareholder of the factory. Furthermore, the judge also discarded all allegations of forgery associated with the case. As per the court decision, the process of mechanically placing signatures for business transactions is a common practice across Zambezi Portland. Furthermore, critical member of the Ventriglia family, Claudio Ventriglia, itself engaged in similar practice. As such, no forgery changes were accepted.
Furthermore, the judge overlooking the case at the Court of Appeal was Justice Mwinde. He said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as the only shareholders of Zambezi Portland Cement without having any evidence or documents. As such, this decision by the Lusaka High Court was completely unruly and against the public policies. The judge at the Court of Appeal also gave a timeline of three months from the date of judgement during which both parties are required to complete the process of sales regularization and share selling processes. This regularization process should be as per the new judgement given by the Court of Appeal.