In the year 2012, Zambians heard that Rajan Mahtani, the great businessman of Zambia, took over Zambezi Portland Cement (ZPC) from the actual owners of the company, the Ventriglias, who are of Italian origin. It is from that time that they have heard many false stories about Rajan Mahtani and the Zambezi Portland Cement. These stories have been thrown around by the lawyer of the Ventriglias as well as the corrupt presses.
Recently, a shameless lie has become the buzz in the country. It’s about Dr. Rajan Mahtani forging a signature of the Ventriglias on the transfer share documents. Many false stories have been published by the media on this issue.
But what’s the truth? Have you ever thought about the other side of the story? Read this article to know the reality.
What do you think that Dr. Rajan Mahtani just woke up one day and said that I want Portland Cement and so he grabbed it? Surely not! Sakwiba Sikota, the Ventriglias lawyer has been very careful in selecting what kind of information to release to the press. He presented the Ventriglias as victims very wisely.
However, the truth is Zambezi Portland Cement owes its existence to Dr. Rajan Mahtani. Without the money of Dr. Mahtani, there would have been no formation of the company. The documents clearly show that almost all money, which was used for creating the second biggest company in Zambia came from Dr. Mahtani or through his other companies.
Dr. Rajan Mahtani through Finsbury Investments owns fifty-eight percent shares in Zambezi Portland Cement. The Ventriglias, on the other hand, own forty-two percent. Have a look at the shareholding certificate signed by the five family members of the Ventriglias on February 26, 2007. (Click Link for Attachment) ZPC Shareholders Agreement
The Ventriglias have not disputed this ZPC shareholders agreement. Rather, the forgery is related to a secondary document relating to the transfer of the shares at Patents and Companies Registration Office (PACRA).
It goes this way; first you agree on a shareholding and sign the agreement just like this case. Then you go to the Patents and Companies Registration Office for registering your agreement in the process known as ‘share transfer’. The share transfer, in other words, is just a notification to PACRA that these are the changes which have been made in the company. The most vital document is the shareholding agreement. Why are the Ventriglia family members not disputing the shareholding agreement, which is the most important of all the documents?
It has already been noted earlier that the Finsbury and the Ventriglias signed an agreement in the year 2007. This agreement gave Finsbury Investments fifty-eight percent shares giving them the opportunity to become the real owners of the ZPC. Obviously Finsbury didn’t get these shares for free. They had to pay a fortune.
But what is it that went wrong?
Greed and politics came in. The Ventriglias were not happy about the fact that they were minority shareholders now because as minority shareholders, you don’t get to control the company. Then there was a change in the government in the year 2008 after the death of Levy Mwanawasa.
The Ventriglias, in an Italian Mafia style, launched a bid to take the control of the company by making use of government machinery. The senior government officials were highly paid and within no time, Dr Mahtami was expelled and accused of forgery and all kinds of crimes. Zaheeda Essa, the lawyer of Rajan Mahtani was harassed a lot and threatened with being imprisoned and deportation if she didn’t sign the documents that were written by Sikota accusing Rajan Mahtani. Zaheeda is still quite afraid of Sakwiba even though she had reported him to the police as well as the Law Association of Zambia.
However, when there was a change in the government again, all that Rajan Mahtani did was to follow his shares that were stolen. What happened in the year 2012 was a mere repeat of what took place in 2008. The only difference was that the real owners of Zambezi Portland Cement were claiming their rights.
There is more to the news. In that short period when the Italians reigned at ZPC, more than 40 million USD was stolen. Some money was externalized to the offshore accounts, some were used for hiring handwriting experts for opining down Dr Mahtani, and some cash were used for bribing the politicians. Their lawyers had unlimited access top the cement, which they got for free, to renovate their properties.
A handwriting expert, Jannie Bester, was paid more than 80,000 USD yet his evidence that the signatures, which are in question were not written physically onto these documents but transferred onto them by mechanical or electronic means was disputed by another expert of the Independent Forensic Consultants. However, this was information is withheld deliberately by Sakwiba when he published articles on the web.
On the theft of the money by the Ventriglias, Rajan Mahtani asked his lawyers to send a letter of demand to the Vetriglias. (Click Link for Attachment) ZPC Vs Ventriglias
It is very much clear that the embezzlement of 40 million dollars, money laundering and outright theft has affected ZPC adversely and put into risk the employment of over thousands of Zambians.
We may make an effort to ask, what did the Ventriglia family do for the community in Ndola the time they operated ZPC other than polluting their neighborhood? Did they build any social amenities, repair any old building or contribute to the charity? The only thing that they were involved in was tax evasion and money externalization to far east.
There is also one more thing that we have observed-almost all entrepreneurs who are against Dr. Mahtani are those people who owe him money.
