Supreme Court Zambia is the highest decision-making legal body across a nation. As a result, decisions coming from this court are considered as final and penultimate. The Supreme Court Zambia recently gave a decision on a claim by the Ventriglia. It is the same notorious business family in Zambia with whom Dr. Rajan Mahtani has been fighting for many decades. Recently, the Ventriglia family approached the Supreme Court Zambia by challenging the decision of the higher Court of Appeal on Portland Cement. On 31st January 2019, judge Mwinde on behalf of the higher Court of Appeal effectively reversed the decision from the Lusaka High Court and announced Dr. Rajan Mahtani as the majority shareholder and legal owner of the Portland Cement Zambia factory with 58 percent shares. He also announced that the Ventriglia family owned just 42 percent shares of the factory and held no legal authority over the factory’s ownership. All these decisions were challenged by the Ventriglia family in their fresh appeal to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court Zambia created a bench of three judges to evaluate this appeal. The SC judges were Mumba Malila, Royda Kaoma and Michael Musonda. This bench said that according to the law, all appeals against previous court decisions must be made within 14 days of the decision itself. This means the Ventriglia family should have made this claim within two weeks after the Court of Appeal’s decision on 31st January 2019. The Supreme Court bench further added that there was no jurisdiction to entertain the appeal from the Ventriglia family and as such, it was effectively rejected by the Supreme Court.