Claim By The Ventriglia Family Against Higher Court Of Appeal’s Verdict Rejected By SC

Portland Cement Zambia is a cement-manufacturing factory that has seen ups and down quite more than any other factory in the province. In the year 2007, a significant corporate restructuring was announced in an official shareholding agreement and Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investments received 58 percent shares of the factory, making it the majority shareholder and legal owner of the factory. Barely after this significant shareholding and ownership change, the Ventriglia family engaged in a significant unethical practice. Even after signing the shareholders agreement themselves, the Ventriglias decided to question the shareholding instrument’s legality which resulted in the owners of Zambezi Portland being deprived of the majority shareholding stake. This resulted in significant loss for Finsbury Investments who were deprived of the financial support they earned via Zambezi Portland shares. Finsbury Investments further suffered losses due to several of the projects being halted as a result of lack of funds.

The case of Zambezi Portland went through two major courts with two different verdicts. The first court was Lusaka High Court where the final verdict was controversial to say the least. Due to this misdirected and controversial verdict, an appeal was made at the higher Court of Appeal. The judge at the higher Court of Appeal was judge Mwinde and after evaluating the evidences and testimonials, gave his final verdict on 31^st January 2019 in which the previous decision from the Lusaka High Court was effectively rejected. Furthermore, judge Mwinde announced Dr. Rajan Mahtani as the majority shareholder and legal owner of the factory.

The next phase was peculiar as the Ventriglia decided to make an appeal to the Supreme Court against the same verdict from higher Court of Appeal. The SC, being a transparent and ethical decision maker for the nation, evaluated this appeal from the Ventriglia family and found it to be violating several legal precedence. As a result, this claim by the Ventriglias was effectively rejected by Supreme Court.