Despite several unethical attempts by the criminal masterminds of the Zambezi Portland Cement case, real justice was given by the Court of Appeal. This judgement came on 31st January 2019 after around nine months of waiting from Dr. Rajan Mahtani. The case of Zambezi Portland Cement is age old and was registered almost ten years back when it was illegally taken from Dr. Mahtani. It was approached at the Lusaka High Court and despite sharing several factual details and evidences, the final decision from the judge at the High Court was nothing less than surprising. The Justice at the Lusaka High Court was Judge Nkonde and he held that Ventriglias were only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland. However, this decision was contested by Dr. Rajan Mahtani who then approached the Court of Appeal.
The justice at the Court of Appeal was Justice Mwinde, who on 31st January 2019 effectively reversed the flowed judgement given at the Lusaka High Court. According to the judge at the Court of Appeal, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments owns 58 percent shares at the Zambezi Portland factory and is the majority shareholder. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited hold 42 percent shares at the factory and are minority shareholders. This means Finsbury Investments and Dr. Rajan Mahtani are the owner of the factory and the Ventriglias have no ownership over it. Furthermore, the judgement given at the Court of Appeal aligns with the original Shareholders Agreement entered during establishment of the factory in 2007.
Furthermore, all forgery allegations established against Dr. Mahtani and Finsbury Investments have been discarded by the judge. It was established that the process of mechanically placing signatures for business transactions was a common approach in Zambezi Portland Cement and important Ventriglia family members have engaged in similar practice. As such, the allegations were not valid.