In the year 2018, justice Nkonde from the Lusaka High Court in his judgement had declared that the only legitimate & bona fide owners of the Zambezi Portland Cement limited were the Ventriglias. Justice Nkonde has also declared that any share ownership in the Zambezi Portland Cement factory claimed by the Finsbury Investments irrespective of the evidences and testimonials was to be considered as a fraudulent act. Justice Nkonde also declared that Finsbury Investments had failed to pay any property transfer tax and as a result, they cannot be considered as the owner or shareholders of the Portland Cement Zambia factory.
However, Dr. Rajan Mahtani took the right step and appealed to the higher Court of Appeal on seven different grounds. After looking into the evidences and testimonials, the higher Court of Appeal promptly dismissed the findings of justice Nkonde from the Lusaka High Court. According to the decision from the Higher Court of Appeal, the evidences and testimonials clearly indicated that the shareholding pattern of Zambezi Portland Cement were made consensually by all members of the factory. However, the higher Court of Appeal ordered Finsbury Investments to pay a sum of K580 million to Ventriglias for the majority shares transferred in the company’s name. This included the interest at Bank of Zambia based on the short fixed-term deposit rate.
According to the Supreme Court judges, the action by Finsbury Investments to launch an appeal at the Higher Court of Appeal was correct and the decision to involve the Rule-19 towards thwarting the further unethical progress from the Ventriglias was also correct. The appeal from the Ventriglias cannot be touched now as according to law, the escalation of the case to the Supreme Court of Zambia will amount to nothing as the decision from the Supreme Court on Zambezi Portland Cement remains same as the previous Court, higher Court of Appeal.