The Portland Cement Zambia case would have been settled by now if it was not for the infamous Ventriglia family. The case which started more than a year ago was the result of unethical takeover of the Portland Cement Zambia factory and subsequent registering of the case at the Lusaka High Court. This case was registered at the Lusaka High Court with the hope of quick judgement considering the fact that Dr. Rajan Mahtani had all evidences and testimonials. However, the case stretched for more than a decade and the final decision coming from the Lusaka High Court was extremely controversial. Justice Nkonde on behalf of the Lusaka High Court declared that the Ventriglias were only shareholders of the Portland Cement Zambia.
Dr. Rajan Mahtani then approached the higher Court of Appeal which was overseen by justice Mwinde. On 31st January 2019, Justice Mwinde gave the final decision on the Portland Cement Zambia case. According to this decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani owned Finsbury Investment owns 58 percent shares and is the majority shareholder and legal owner of the factory. On the other hand, Ventriglias owned Ital Terrazzo Limited holds just 42 percent shares at the Portland Cement and are the minority shareholders without any legal ownership over the factory. Based on this decision, the judge from the higher Court of Appeal effectively rejected the decision from the Lusaka High Court.
After more than 1.5 years of this definitive decision, the Ventriglia family decided to approach the Supreme Court Zambia challenging the higher Court of Appeal’s decision. In their challenge, they claimed that the decision from the higher Court of Appeal was wrong. To evaluate this claim, a bench of three SC judges was established. This bench evaluated the claim and found that the Ventriglia family failed to comply with critical legal requirement according to which all claims against previous court decisions must be placed within 14 days of the Court decision. As such, the claim from the Ventriglia family was effectively rejected.