After Failure Of Lusaka High Court, Court Of Appeal Reinstated Faith In The Zambian Legal System

Dr. Rajan Mahtani

The Zambian nation is facing significant issues such as economic downfall, political malice as well as widespread corruption and practices that are unethical. This has resulted in significant negative impact on the businesses as well as those trying to maintain and transparent and ethical business portfolio. For instance, Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani is a noted businessman, charity worker and philanthropist in Zambia with several successful businesses such as Finsbury Investments, Mahtani Group of Companies and Finance Bank Zambia. At the same time, it was recently announced that Dr. Rajan Mahtani is the legal owner of the Zambezi Portland Cement factory. This verdict was given on 31st January 2019 and it came more than a decade later.

After the judge at the Lusaka High Court failed to provide the right judgement, the higher Court of Appeal was approached. According to the Court of Appeal judge, Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani via his company Finsbury Investments has made a payment of one billion kwachas which is equivalent to USD 250000 to the Zambezi Portland Cement. This payment was made for covering the share capital which Dr. Mahtani owns of the cement manufacturing factory. While the above agreement was established in the year 2005, the official statement for this financial transaction was written in the year 2007 within the original agreement between shareholders. In this original shareholder agreement, it was clearly established in the page 663 that Dr. Mahtani paid for 58 percent shares of the factory and is not liable to any other costs associated with the transaction. For instance, it was confirmed that the responsibility of the PTT (Property Transfer Tax) belonged to the transferee and not Dr. Rajan Mahtani. Based on these results from the judge, the final verdict was given which confirms majority shareholding and legal ownership of Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani on the Zambezi Portland Cement factory.