Dr. Rajan Mahtani has finally won the case of Portland Cement Zambia. This case is one of the longest pending cases in Zambia and also one of the longest for Dr. Rajan Mahtani. The case was registered by Dr. Rajan Mahtani himself after the factory was illegally taken over. The Lusaka High Court took more than a decade to announce the final judgement. Justice Nkonde gave the final judgement on the case and announced that Ventriglias were only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. Since this decision was misdirected and without any evidence; Dr. Rajan Mahtani then approached the Court of Appeal.
The judge at the Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde. Unlike the previous judge, the Court of Appeal judge looked into all evidences and testimonials and gave the final judgement based on these evidences and facts. The final judgement was given on 31st January 2019. As per this decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments is majority shareholder of the Zambezi Portland Cement with 58 percent shares. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds just 42 percent shares at the factory and is the minority shareholder without any legal ownership over the factory. Based on this decision from the Court of Appeal, it is clear that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the actual owner of the factory.
Justice Mwinde from the Court of Appeal also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement as this decision was misdirected. The judge also said that the process of mechanically placing signatures was a common practice in Zambezi Portland Cement. It was found that critical member of the Ventriglia family, Claudio Ventriglia engaged in similar practice and as a result all allegations of forgery were discarded by the judge. Furthermore, justice Mwinde also gave a timeline of three months from the date of the judgement during which all share sales and regulations related activities must be completed.