Court of Appeal is one of the highest decision-making bodies across any nation. It has similar repute as the Supreme Court of any nation. As such, any decision given by the Court of Appeal is of umpteen importance and is considered as the final judgment. In case of the Zambezi Portland Cement, the final decision was given by the Court of Appeal on 31st January 2019. According to this decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the majority shareholder and legal owner of the Zambezi Portland Cement. By giving this decision, the judge from the Court of Appeal effectively reversed the judgment by the Lusaka High Court given last year. The judge from the Lusaka High Court, Justice Nkonde, gave decision on May 2018 that Ventriglias were only shareholders of the Zambezi Portland Cement. Contesting this decision, Dr. Rajan Mahtani then approached the Court of Appeal which announced its decision nine months later.
The judge from the Court of Appeal was Justice Mwinde who also said that the judge below him was wrong in declaring Ventriglias as only shareholders without having any proof or evidence. Furthermore, forgery allegations were charged by the Ventriglias which were completely discarded by the judge. Justice Mwinde gave the final decision that the process of mechanically placing signatures for business transactions was a common practice across Zambezi Portland Cement and in fact, member of Ventriglia family engaged in similar practices. Furthermore, the Court of Appeal gave a time period of three months from judgment date during which all parties are required to finalize on the process of share regularization process.
In the meantime, Finsbury Investments have claimed a sum of K1 billion against the payment made for entire share capital issues of Zambezi Portland Cement. The payment has been confirmed by the Court of Appeal with evidences of payments during late 2006 and early 2007.