Following the resumption of management at Zambezi Portland Cement (ZPC) by the original company founders on April 8, the plant was discovered to be in extraordinary disrepair, having suffered much costly damage under the previous management appointed by previous operator Finsbury Investments, owned by embattled banker Rajan Mahtani.
According to company sources, numerous pieces of large machinery and vehicles have been damaged beyond repair under former MD Andrew Kamanga, later succeeded by Peter Kanaganayagam.
Both Kamanga and Kanaganayagam had been appointed to run ZPC in late 2012 following a disputed board meeting that took place after other company directors had been deported from the country under suspicious circumstances. This was recently reversed by the courts.
“Just a few years ago this was a world-class cement company, the best in Zambia, but now Mahtani, Kamanga, and Kanaganyagam have almost run it into the ground,” said one of the plant’s engineers.
“We saw Peter Kanaganayagam take millions of dollars of kickbacks by awarding bogus contracts for spare parts that never arrived, one of these companies being Zamrock Zambia Limited,” alleged one employee who worked closely with management in the sales office.
Kanaganayagam has since fled Zambia following the court decision to reverse the deportation orders against the company’s true owners. Rajan Mahtani, who was found to owe a large amount of unpaid taxes to the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA), is currently believed to be in hiding in Canada.
On April 8, Antonio Ventriglia and Manuela Sebastiani and other company directors arrived the plant to resume control.
