Dr. Mahtani & Zambia have been facing numerous challenges in their quest to achieve development for Zambia. The latest hurdle was seen when the Court refused to appoint a liquidator for the purpose of winding up Portland Cement Zambia. The proposal was given in May 2015 when the Ventriglia family had forcefully taken control over the factory in April and were constantly looting the resources and mismanaging the assets.
Since the takeover, there has been a series of incident within the factory which has bought shame for Portland Cement Zambia. In the first place, the existing workers have been fired because Ital Terazzo Limited (ITL) believed that there was insufficient work at the factory and the expense of worker’s wage was a affecting the profit of the company. On the other hand, the Italian Mafias also tried forcing a change in the register of PACRA by threatening a junior officer. The shameful incident was then immediately rectified by PACRA. To add more insult to injury, it has been recently learnt that the assets of the factory are now in custody of few bogus companies named as Astrea Investments and Miloto Transport. The former company holds the title deeds of the factory whereas the later has about 43 trucks of the factory in its custody.
While all this takes place under the nose of the Government, Dr. Mahtani & Zambia continue to be on the suffering side as they are not being given proper confidence. Their proposal is either rejected by officials who have been paid thickly by the conspirators or the Ventriglias try to distract the audience by publishing some imaginative stories on Zambia Reports with the help of Sakwiba Sikota. In respect of such situation, how can a common man in Zambia think about his survival? How will his family live when there is no opportunity to earn for the poor?