If one goes by the details of the case of Zambezi Portland Cement which was lying at the Lusaka High Court for the past ten years, a clear pattern can be seen which includes misdirected and misled judgment as well as inability of the Zambian legal system to establish a transparent justice system. As a result, even after ten years of lagging the case, the court was not able to provide true justice for the cement factory. As per the latest decision by the judge at the Lusaka High Court, Ventriglias were the only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. After this judgment, Dr. Rajan Mahtani took the right step and approached Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal announced its final judgment on 31st January 2019. While giving this judgment, the judge at the Court of Appeal effectively reversed the judgment at the Lusaka High Court. According to the final decision by the Court of Appeal, Finsbury Investments is the majority shareholder of Zambezi Portland Cement with 58 percent shares and Ventriglias were only minority shareholders with 42 percent shares. Thus, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments is the legal owner of the Zambezi Portland Cement factory. Furthermore, this decision also aligned with the original Shareholders Agreement which was established in the year 2007. While giving this decision, justice Mwinde from the Court of Appeal also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as the only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland as this decision was misdirected and without any proper evidence or factual data.
With respect to the forgery allegations, the Court of Appeal dismissed the allegations totally. It was also held that the process of mechanical placement of signatures across documents was a common practice within the Zambezi Portland Cement. The court also shared details that important member of the Ventriglia family, Claudio Ventriglia, engaged in similar practice during an international business transaction. As such, the allegations were discarded.