Now that the final verdict has come from the higher Court of Appeal, it is now a known fact that Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani is the actual and legal owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory. This decision came on 31st January 2019 after a long battle at the Lusaka High Court as well as the Court of Appeal. Often when cases are not finalised as a district level court or some discrepancies are still found in the decision, the issues are generally taken to the higher courts. Zambia is a developing nation and the higher Court of Appeal is among the highest courts within the nation. As such, it was natural for Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani to approach the Court after Lusaka High Court gave an extremely controversial judgement.
Justice Mwinde on behalf of the Court of Appeal announced the decision on the Zambezi Portland Cement case. Unlike the Lusaka High Court’s controversial and misdirected decision, the Court of Appeal gave its final decision only after looking into all evidences and testimonials. One of the major evidences was the proof of financial transaction of one billion kwachas or USD 250,000 from Dr. Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments to Zambezi Portland Cement. This amount covered the entire value of the share capital of the Zambezi Portland Cement Limited. While this financial transaction took place in the year 2005, the evidence of this transaction was further found in the original shareholders’ agreement established in the year 2007. In the page number 663 of this original shareholders’ agreement, it is clearly written that Dr. Rajan Mahtani does not owe any further costs associated with the factory. It was also found that all other costs associated with the transaction such as PTT was responsibility of the Vendor.
All these evidences have now clearly established the fact that Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani is the only legal owner of the factory.