Higher Court Discards The Judgement By Lower Court, Announces Dr. Mahtani As Real Winner

While giving the final judgement on the long pending Zambezi Portland Cement case, justice Mwinde on behalf of the Court of Appeal shared some significant details which clearly indicate the unethical decision from the previous court, Lusaka High Court. The findings from the higher Court of Appeal clearly indicate that the decision by justice Nkonde from the Lusaka High Court was misdirected, controversial and did not consider any of the critical evidences shared to the court. A critical point to be noted here is that around two months before giving its final decision during the month of May, justice Nkonde announced that the final decision will be given based on the evidences submitted by the parties. While it was a positive news for Dr. Rajan Mahtani, the results were not as expected.

The first major evidence was the payment made by Finsbury investments, the appellant within the Zambian court of law. This payment comprised of one billion kwachas or USD 250,000 which was paid to cover the entire share capital value of the Portland Cement Zambia. Furthermore, the Court of Appeal judge also confirmed that in the page number 663 of the Original Shareholders’ Agreement established in the year 2007, it was clearly established that Dr. Rajan Mahtani purchased 58 percent shares of the factory and became the majority shareholder of the factory. With this majority shareholding, Dr. Rajan Mahtani also became the actual and legal owner of the factory. Furthermore, this original agreement between shareholders also indicated that Dr. Rajan Mahtani was free from all other types of payments associated with the factory, especially the property transfer tax which was the responsibility of the vendor during the time of the transfer.

Based on the above evidences, on 31st January 2019, the judge at the Court of Appeal announced Dr. Rajan Mahtani as the legal owner of the Zambezi Portland Cement factory.