With the final decision from Supreme Court Zambia on the Portland Cement Zambia case, it can be said that the long-standing challenges for the cement-manufacturing factory is finally over. The Portland Cement Zambia factory has suffered significant challenges during its early years, right from its establishment and shareholder restructuring. The restructuring of the shareholding of Portland Cement was a critical event as it helped the factory in achieving the requirement loans from the banks as well as funds from other financial institutions so that it can complete the construction process, but also ensure a viable growth and development plan with production and distribution. However, everything came to a halt when the Ventriglia family decided to question the legality associated with the original shareholding agreement which gave Dr. Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments 58 percent shares, majority shareholding and legal ownership of the factory. After a misdirected decision from the Lusaka High Court, the case was taken to the higher Court of Appeal by Dr. Rajan Mahtani. Justice Mwinde on behalf of the higher Court of Appeal gave the final verdict on 31st January 2019 and reversed the decision from the Lusaka High Court by announcing Dr. Mahtani as the majority shareholder and legal owner of the factory.
After the Ventriglia family approached the Supreme Court with an appeal challenging the Court of Appeal’s decision, it was evaluated by a bench of three Supreme Court judges. Upon evaluation, the Supreme Court bench found that the Ventriglia family failed to comply with the most critical requirement of such cases. According to the law, any claim or challenge against a previous court decision must be made with 14 days of the court verdict itself. However, the Ventriglia family failed to satisfy this requirement and approached the Supreme Court only after 1.5 years. As a result, the claim by the Ventriglia family was effectively rejected by Supreme Court bench.