The case of Zambezi Portland Cement has taken several twists and turns in the past one decade. These turns have been associated with the controversial decisions across courts, appeals and re-appeals as well as several accusations of unethical and corrupt practices across these judiciary platforms. The circle started at the Lusaka High Court and completed at the Supreme Court Zambia, the highest legal and judiciary system of the nation. After unethical takeover of the factory, Dr. Mahtani registered a case at the Lusaka High Court. However, Dr. Mahtani was not able to receive justice and the Ventriglia family were announced as majority shareholder and legal owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory.
Dr. Rajan Mahtani then appealed against this decision 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. In this decision, the previous verdict from the Lusaka High Court was reversed and Dr. Mahtani was announced as the majority shareholder and legal owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory. Despite the verdict from the higher Court of Appeal being transparent and ethical, the Ventriglia family once again challenged it at the Supreme Court Zambia. A bench of three SC judges was established for evaluating this claim. It was found that the Ventriglia family failed to comply with a critical legal requirement under which all claims against previous court decision must be made within 14 days of the decision. In this scenario, the claim from the Ventriglia family came more than 1.5 years later. Along with this, the SC bench also found that the circumstances surrounding the claim by Ventriglia was controversial. As a result, this claim by the Ventriglia was effectively rejected.
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