The higher Court of Appeal has finally identified the actual ownership of Portland Cement Zambia. This final verdict came around nine months of case proceedings at the Court of Appeal and more than a decade of case proceedings at the Lusaka High Court. The case proceedings at the Lusaka High Court surely puts a dent at the overall capacity of the Zambian legal and judiciary system. Dr. Rajan Mahtani had initially registered the case at the local Lusaka court with the objective of getting a quick verdict considering he had all required evidences, facts, testimonials and other legal papers necessary for proving his claims. Despite the decade-long stretch, Dr. Mahtani was hopeful when during the initial months into 2019, justice Nkonde announced that all case proceedings have been closed and the final decision will be given after looking into the provided evidences, testimonials and other details. Despite this clarification, the final verdict coming in the month of May, 2018 was extremely controversial.
Justice Nkonde declared Ventriglias as the only shareholders of the Portland Cement Zambia. This was a misdirected judgement which was challenges by Dr. Rajan Mahtani at the higher Court of Appeal. The judge at the higher Court of Appeal was justice Mwinde who gave the final decision on 31st January 2019 which were controversially avoided by the previous judge. Based on the available evidences and testimonials, justice Mwinde declared Dr. Rajan Mahtani as the rightful owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory. At the same time, justice Mwinde also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as the only shareholders without any evidence or proof.
Rajan Mahtani News 