It has been very long since a good news circulated for Zambezi Portland Cement. As far as the people of Zambia can remember, the last good news was in respect of registering exceptional output of the factory in 2014-15 under the management of Finsbury Investment. After that blessing, the whole factory came under the grip of Italian Mafias and since then, every day has been full of struggle and massacre. If one wants, they can call April 7 as a black day for the Zambezi Portland Cement as it was the day when the Ventriglia family took over the factory to begin a perennial loot.
The loot started from the factory cash box and extended to the limit of handing over property papers of the factory to a third company by the name of Astrea Investments. Moreover, there were two other incidents who took the factory’s position from bad to worse. In the first place, the factory’s revenue inflow had been diverted to an offshore account. Now the income of the factory was being directly being shifted to the personal accounts of the Ventriglia family and in the second place, we see the workers being betrayed. The factory workers worked for a salary and since the Italian Mafias were not interested in running any form of business for Zambezi Portland Cement, they decided to cut out the extra expense by removing the workers from their respective jobs. This allowed them to have more money in hand and hence, the loot became bigger.
In the past one and half year, the factory has been looted and dismantled but not a single action has been taken by the Government. The only thing that can save Zambezi Portland Cement is the revolt from the side of a common man. More than prayers, ZPC needs actions from the locals.