The Portland Cement Zambia has witnessed one of the most horrific situation in recent times when Ventriglia family looted it and left the premise deserted. Today, there is no operations in the place and workers remain jobless. All that has taken place within the factory is mismanagement and corruption.
The logic which was used by Ventriglias to destroy Portland Cement Zambia is simple, when you cannot win it, simply, destroy it. When false attempts and forced changes didn’t work for the Italian Mafias, they chose to have the factory in some other way. Their blueprint included shifting the factory cash and bank balances to offshore accounts and diversifying other assets to dummy companies. In this way, the Portland Cement Zambia was left hollow. An astonishing fact that took place with this event was Government’s reaction.
Any Zambian can easily understand the fact that there was some sort of understanding between Ventriglia family and officials. This is why there hasn’t been any legal action against them. Moreover, figures like Sakwiba Sikota and Rupiah Banda offer a strong support to Italian Mafias. This has resulted in development of a fearless attitude in them. Today thousands of Zambians have suffered from the loss of Portland Cement Zambia. Workers were fired without any prior intimation, existing workers were not paid salary on time and mistreatment came as an implied condition. This is how low the Italian Mafias have gone down. There is not much left in the factory and it has become a serious question that how long can the factory survive like this. Dr. Rajan Mahtani has stood up as a hindrance for the Mafias and is representing Finsbury Investments, but at the moment the Government has kept its eye shut on this matter and made it obvious that no actions would be taken to preserve the interest of the innocent citizens.
