Press release
WE are perturbed by utter misrepresentation of facts by one Bishop John Mambo who wants to wage war against the legitimate owners of Zambezi Portland Cement (ZPC) in his desperate antics of helping Rajan Mahtani in trying to shift attention from real issues surrounding the company.
We dare Bishop Mambo to come out clean in the issue of ZPC rather than fabricate stories on the legal status of our cement company and misleading the general public with his concocted statements.
We reiterate our earlier statement in which we assured our customers and the general public of prompt product and service delivery as we are effectively fully in control of the repossessed assets. We further repeat our advise to our clients and the public to ignore Dr Mahtani’s purported ownership of ZPC.
Ordinarily, we would not have reacted to Bishop Mambo’s wild accusations against my management of ZPC but because he seems to have his facts fragmented, we are motivated to respond and to put the record straight.
One, it is outlandish for the so-called man of God to embarrass himself by branding our Managing Director Mr Antonio Ventriglia as a racist when he has stayed in Zambia for more than 58 years and has lived and worked with people of different races without such insults being hurled at him.
We do not take kindly to Bishop Mambo’s racist remarks against our MD and against management of Zambezi Portland Cement. Rather than imply that workers are subjected to inhumane matter of body searches, Bishop Mambo should have been smart to undertake an intelligent probe into such unfounded allegations.
There are no such actions, but what we can confirm is that, we uphold strong work ethics and culture at Zambezi Portland Cement and undertake routine disciplinary processes and formal security checks, like at any company, which should not be interpreted as racism and an insult to the workers.
We would also like to respond to Bishop Mambo’s biased remarks regarding the deportation of Mr Ventriglia and other directors, and say that, while we are fully aware that the deportation was instigated by Dr Mahtani in order for him to have a free hand on ZPC, management followed laid down legal processes to challenge the action and the courts ruled that there was no material evidence for the deportation of the founding directors.
We would like to remind Bishop Mambo that, following our decision to challenge the deportation, the Lusaka High Court recently ruled that the rightful owners of the cement firm are the Ventriglia family. In case he is not also aware, the court also quashed the deportation order of 2012.
It is a known fact that the claim by Dr Mahtani of 58% ownership of ZPC through Finsbury Investment is fraudulent, illegal and forgery which we cannot accept. For about Seven years, no original transfer share documents have been submitted to the Patents and Companies Registration Agency (PACRA), a situation which raises a lot of dust.
We pride ourselves in credible business undertakings and we shall always endeavour to follow the legal systems in an event of underhand methods being engaged by the likes of Dr Mahtani.
We would also like to request Bishop Mambo to leave the President of the Republic of Zambia Mr Edgar Lungu and the Government out of the personal feud between us (the legal and legitimate owners of ZPC) and Dr Mahtani. He should not drag the President into our personal dispute because that is tantamount to lack of respect for the Presidency.
ISSUED BY MANAGEMENT
ZAMBEZI PORTLAND CEMENT LIMITED
NDOLA.
At least this is not Zambian Watchdog or Zambia Reports where both both make outragious claims about each other! And unlike ZWD we can comment freely! There seems to be more to this saga than that meets the eye! A word to our Zambian movies script writers, need you any encouragement? This story is much better than Dallas: Takeovers, deportations, courts, forgery- what more can we want? The funny thing for me is both of the warring parties made their fortune right here in Zambia! And we are watching as they mint!
Ventriglia is a racist, been in Zambia for more than 50 years does not make him a saint. We should call a spade a spade over protecting of Ventriglia by few individuals will not solve problems at ZPC.
even the sons to that man are racisit’s.
This is going to roll and roll. The Ventriglia stole 300 million kwacha from the financiers not just mahtani. No way that plant belongs to them. Managment will change again very soon when the real owners take control.
bishop mambo tame your big mouth and know that certain rantings will cost you big time .
who has paid you to comment on issues you dont know.
do you know what is criminal about the same?
evidence is very clear and mathani will not escape this one.
he should expect utterly forgery and impersonation charges.
Bishop Mambo still alive? I thought he was dead and buried somewhere in Chongwe?
Read the Environmental Impact Statement of ZPC and you will discover that ZPC is the brainchild of the Ventriglias.
when you look at old men like John Mambo and think that they have been involved in decision making in Zambia then you understand why the country has not seen development. You understand why younger ones are so disrespectful of elders. Bishop Mambo is supposed to be one of the pillars of this country with regard to source of wisdom. However, this man’s utterances lack any wisdom. They are so uninspiring to the young .
its interesting that mathani is always fighting for property and companies.
remeber the radisson blu hotel issue. From the readings in the media this man is like those shylocks that will make you sign a buy back agreement for your property and then makes sure you dont manage to pay back so they can take over your property. I believe Kalusha Bwalya also lost a house in this manner.
Can these people please come clean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!