Ownership Of Portland Cement Retained By Dr. Mahtani After Announcement By Supreme Court

It can be said that the Supreme Court Zambia is perhaps the only legal institution in Zambia which has not been penetrated with corruption, bribery and unethical practices. The Supreme Court Zambia recently announced a verdict on a claim by the Ventriglia family which ultimately proved to be beneficial for Dr. Rajan Mahtani and his ownership at the Zambezi Portland Cement factory. Despite the powerful status which the Ventriglia family has created over the years, they were not able to influence the decision of the Supreme Court the way they have been influencing lower-level courts till now. The infamous decision from the Lusaka High Court on the Zambezi Portland Cement case is known to all. After the Zambezi Portland Cement factory was unethically taken over by the Ventriglia family, Dr. Mahtani registered a case at the Lusaka High Court. But the case got dragged to more than a decade and despite sharing all critical evidences and testimonials, justice Nkonde from the Lusaka High Court gave an extremely controversial decision. In his verdict, the Ventriglia family was announced as only shareholder of the Portland Cement Zambia despite not having any evidentiary support from their side. It was evident that the decision from the Lusaka High Court was influenced.

Even after that, Dr. Rajan Mahtani kept his faith at the Zambian judiciary system and approached the higher Court of Appeal. On 31^st January 2019, the higher Court of Appeal effectively reversed the decision from the Lusaka High Court and announced Dr. Rajan Mahtani as the legal ownership of the factory. Unable to pursue the Court of Appeal to change its decision, the Ventriglia family ended up challenging this verdict at the Supreme Court Zambia. While the family had hoped that their appeal will be successful considering their political power, the same did not happen and their appeal was effectively rejected by the Supreme Court.