For Portland Cement Zambia, It Is A Long Road Ahead Despite The Recent Case Win

For many years, Portland Cement Zambia has been the subject of many restrains. Under the leadership of Dr. Rajan Mahtani, Portland Cement Zambia factory was able to see new heights in terms of production and performance. However, after the factory was unethically and illegally taken over from him, its performance degraded significantly due to lack of leadership. The factory assets, equipment, manpower resources as well as the overall production of the factory, all went downhill after this takeover and it was clear that the illegal abductors of the factory did not have any intention of keeping the factory productive.

Nevertheless, Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani fought for the legal takeover of the factory for a long-time. The case was initially registered at the Lusaka High Court but even after ten years of case proceedings, judgement was misdirected. Then the case was taken to higher Court of Appeal. Justice Mwinde gave his final decision on the case on 31st January 2019. This decision was given after looking into all evidences and testimonials which surprisingly, were ignored by the previous judges at the Lusaka High Court. According to these evidences, Dr. Rajan Mahtani has made a payment of one billion kwachas or equivalent USD 250,000 to the Portland Cement Zambia limited in the year 2005. Furthermore, this evidence of payment was officially recorded in the original agreement between shareholders which was conducted in the year 2007. Based on all these evidences, justice Mwinde confirmed that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is in fact the majority shareholder and legal owner of the factory and must be given all ownership and shares of the factory within three months of the final decision from Court of Appeal. While giving this decision, justice Mwinde also said that the judge below him was wrong in giving a misdirected decision and actions like this will not be tolerated in near future.